


Morals, Meet Compromise

by anawitch



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Police, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers, F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-24
Updated: 2016-12-22
Packaged: 2018-08-10 17:55:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 23
Words: 49,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7855186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anawitch/pseuds/anawitch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Officers Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang take on a summer crime wave eerily similar to one twenty-two years prior. With their superiors keeping secrets they must find alternative ways to find the information they need to finally put a stop to it.</p><p>Alternatively, Yang and Ruby make some poor romantic decisions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Late Nights

**Author's Note:**

> Hi again, it's been a while! Sometimes you think "damn, team RWBY'd look hot in police uniforms" and just have to write 40,000 words of fic about it. Sometimes you have to show your enemies-to-lovers/rivalshipping bias at the same time.
> 
> This fic will contain blood, violence, and death, though nothing too extreme or explicit.

Weiss’s well-manicured nails clicked noisily against her keyboard, a sound which rang out in the otherwise silent office, interrupting Ruby’s thoughts, dragging her easily earned attention from her report. _Click, click, click._ How could she be expected to work under those sorts of conditions?

She took a cautionary glance around the room and found that she was not alone. Yang rocked on her chair, watching the late night traffic pass from the window. Blake gracefully twirled her pen between her fingers like a tiny baton, staring emptily at her computer screen. Pyrrha stretched her arms above her head with a quiet sigh and brushed loose strands of hair behind her ears. Her earrings were cute, Ruby thought – pretty little emeralds that glittered under the harsh indoor light.

Now those were distracting her too.

It had only been half a year since they had all completed their police training, and helping people had always been Ruby’s number one priority. Bemoaning their assignments to simple (boring) cases was more Yang’s thing; Ruby liked to insist that traffic duty and paperwork was _fine_ as long as it made Vale a safer place.

_Click, click, click._

“Ugh. This is so _boring,_ ” she said; an admission of defeat that ended with her flopping onto her desk. There was a general murmur of agreement, but her outburst did nothing to start a conversation as she had hoped. With a sigh she rested her head in her arms and caught her sister’s eye.

Yang pursed her lips and inspected the contents of her own desk. After some consideration, she crumpled up a misprinted sheet and tossed it effortlessly into the wastepaper basket across the room, then gave a smug grin and raised her eyebrows at Ruby. _A challenge._ How could she refuse?

“I am _trying_ to fill out a requisition form,” Weiss said, eventually, when the basket was half full and all attention had gathered to the sibling’s competition. Neither of them had missed a shot.

“My desk needs cleaning,” Ruby responded - a picture of innocence.

“It _wouldn’t_ if you kept it tidy as you went along, like the rest of us. How do you ever find anything?”

“Don’t listen to her, sis. She’s just mad ‘cos she can’t throw for shit.”

With an indignant huff Weiss rose to her feet, balled up a sheet from the printer, and took aim. It soared through the air past Ruby’s head, past Yang, on target… until it hit the wall, landing with an underwhelming crunch. She couldn’t help it: Ruby burst into a fit of laughter.

“I’m further away than you!” Weiss insisted over the infectious giggles that spread across the room. Another ball swished past her and rattled in the basket before she could even finish her sentence and her icy eyes turned to find Blake, barely concealing a smirk.

“I can help you with organising your desk, Ruby. My shift is over.” Pyrrha’s smile was genuine and sweet, even if she had joined them in laughing at Weiss’s throwing skills. She had graduated top of the class in police training, but everything about her was modest and good; Ruby wasn’t sure there was a nicer person on Earth.

“Aw, that’s okay. It’s almost done anyway.”

“Very well,” she responded, all smile and dimples. “See you tomorrow, then.”                                                                                                                     

“Get back safely!” Yang chimed over the elevating noise of Weiss and Blake’s bickering.

Okay, so maybe being a police officer wasn’t all catching villains like she had hoped, but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Saving the world sometimes involved paperwork. It was boring but – whatever. Her colleagues were fun, and she was lucky enough to work with her sister, and even though Weiss was a little snobby sometimes she was still super talented and smart and interesting to be around. But once Pyrrha had gone the laughter died down, and then there were just the four of them remembering their summer work load and falling back into dull silence.

 _Click, click, click._  

Ruby heaved a heavy sigh. Working late sucked. The best they could hope for was a 502 or 607 – that was ‘drunk driving’ and ‘lewd conduct’. Or was it 637? She knew it had a six and a seven in it. Maybe she could revise the codes instead of detailing their last domestic disturbance case…

The radio on her hip buzzed with static.

“All available officers to Tukson’s Book Store, Seventh Street. We have a 187.”

… 187. That one she remembered.

Homicide.

\--

He had blood on his jacket.

It was pushing midnight and he was bent over the sink, scrubbing hopelessly at the stain - he hardly had any clothes, and he definitely only had one jacket, so the fact that that lowlife had the audacity to splatter all over the place seriously bothered him.

“Are you going to give me a hand or what, Em?” he called out. In the mirror he saw her shift on the bed, offering only a cursory glance in his direction.

“Nope,” she said. “It’s your own fault. I told you not to taunt him. You shouldn’t have got so close.”

“I’m sure your ‘I told you so’ will sound great in court when they catch us with a dead man’s blood all over our clothes.”

“ _Your_ clothes,” she corrected. He saw her reflection rise up lazily, cat-like in the way she stretched and clicked her back before approaching. She did little in the way of helping, however, instead perching on the side of the bath, watching him work up close.

“You look like you enjoy it.”

He stopped scrubbing. He took in her expression, but it was not accusatory - it was curious, like she was trying to understand something. Mercury knew that Emerald had never killed anybody before Cinder. He was surprised at how well she was taking the whole thing – he could almost see her heart pumping in her chest after he’d pulled the trigger, but that was the same for him: killing somebody was a hell of an adrenaline rush no matter how many times you did it.

“We all have our hobbies,” he said with a grin, and she released a quiet snicker. Only then did she offer any assistance, standing beside him and wrapping the fabric around a bar of soap. He watched as she rubbed it in, aggressively, until the stain was little more than a pale brown spot on his lapel.

“Do you? Enjoy it?”

Emerald gave a non-committal shrug.

He hung his jacket off the shower rail and followed her back into the bedroom. Across the street the sounds of sirens came near, then the roar of a motorbike before it screeched to a stop. Together he and Emerald pulled back the blinds, watching the commotion unfold.

\--

Five hours and one bike ride later and the sun was rising. Yang had said enough _nothing to see here, sir’_ s to last a life time. Keeping drunk clubbers away from an obvious crime scene was about as difficult as it sounded - everybody wanted to take a look, _Yang_ wanted to take a look, but she and Ruby and Blake and Weiss had been assigned the exciting task of keeping civilians from tampering with evidence while the forensic team investigated, so all she got to see was sidewalk and tarmac and nosy neighbours poking their heads around their curtains.

She supposed she’d be doing the same if she wasn’t an officer.

At least she got to know some of the details: a man in his forties, shot dead in his own store. It was a small shop, his own company; there were no cameras, and the one witness they knew of so far had only heard the gunshot to call them. Already they knew that it would not be fun trying to find a culprit.

When the wave of clubbers finally subsided and the street stood still and empty, she busied herself watching the neighbours that watched them from across the street. Some of them looked nervous, and she could hardly blame them – violent crime had been increasing in the neighbourhood, with six unexplained homicides in half as many weeks, and Vale was not a big a place. Their department was stretched so thin – they must have been if they were sending out new officers to protect the scene.

It used to be so peaceful. Even Yang found herself wondering what the hell was going on.

A flicker of green behind a third story window caught her attention. There stood a woman, mint haired and dark skinned, stone faced with an intense stare even from a distance. Beside her a paler man with silver hair looked Yang in the eye and raised his hand in a half-hearted salute. Something about it amused her; she chuckled and returned the gesture, but by the time she had explained her sudden movement to Blake the pair had disappeared and the curtains were drawn. The sirens must have woken them up when they took Tukson away.

“All done.” One of the forensics took off their hood and mask, taking a deep breath of the fresh air as she stepped outside.

“Stuffy?” Yang asked. The woman peeled her hair off of her sticky forehead with a huff.

“You wanna swap jobs?”

“Did you find anything?” Blake moved to join the conversation before Yang could give her response. Something was off about Blake tonight, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it - she seemed anxious, more inquisitive than usual. The bookstore was one of her favourites, Yang knew: maybe Tukson’s death had hit her harder than she claimed.

“We know about as much now as we did going in. There’s plenty of hair and fingerprints, but it’s a bookshop: of course there is. Once we have the bullet we can at least find what weapon was used, but for now…”

“We’ll stay until the clean-up crew get here,” Blake said. Ruby groaned somewhere in the distance. The sun continued to rise.

The woman yawned into her hand, giving her a nod as she made her way to the car. “Take care.”

Inside the bookstore was gloomy even with the early morning light shining through the shutters. The dark splatters that stained the walls and counters were still evident regardless, and a large part of Yang wanted to believe it was just paint, not the remnants of brain matter from an old bookseller. It wasn’t that she was squeamish: she loved violent movies, and between her and Ruby she had seen more than enough blood from silly childhood accidents -- once she even saw it in her dad’s case files back from when he was on the force, when he took her to work with him one day… but something about seeing it in the pink glow of sunrise in the now-silent street, knowing that a living man had stood there six hours before made her stomach turn. That blood might stain the walls forever.

Maybe that same thought was what spurred Blake to move through the aisles, running her fingers along the shelves, inspecting the woodwork, stopping at every scratch, searching.

“You guys can go home,” Blake said, shortly. “I’ll finish up here.”

“Finish up what, exactly?” Weiss asked. “Acting like a crazy person?”

Yang watched from the doorway, unnerved. Blake only stopped her mad pacing when she reached the counter. Her hands rested on the surface, centimetres away from a splash of blood, and even looking at the back of her head it seemed obvious that it was that that she was staring at, anchoring herself too. In a moment she composed herself.

“You know why I joined the force,” she said, simply, after some silence. 

“You thought the police were corrupt, and you wanted to change it.”

Yang knew the story – everyone on the force did, really, before she even joined. Blake was not unknown by the authorities before she started police training - on the contrary, she had an extensive record of her own in their files after spending most of her teenage years protesting in places she shouldn’t. One day she woke up and decided she needed to make change from the inside. Yang couldn’t help but admire her for it, but she didn’t understand why it was relevant now.

“Right.” Blake turned to face them, then bit down on her lip.

“What’s wrong, Blake?”

She beckoned them over.

With a fingertip she traced the curve of a carving in the wood, drawing their attention downwards. The etching circled around a stylised rendition of an eye, with five lines feathering out from one corner. Yang furrowed her brow.

“What is it?”

They were hastily scratched, jaunty and messy, but clearly a symbol - a logo, perhaps? It was not something she had seen before.

“I don’t know.” Blake moved her hand away, and Weiss took a closer look. “But those six unsolved homicides? I saw _this,_ ” she placed her thumb beneath the mark, “at the third. And the fourth, and the fifth. It connects them.”

“I’m pretty sure the forensics team have picked up on this…” Weiss said, folding her arms. “They’re _probably_ only telling people actually involved in the case.”

“I thought that too,” said Blake. “So I took a look at the file for Amber Maidenhead. There was nothing – no evidence mentioning it at all. When I went back to the crime scene, it was just… gone. Filled in. Painted over.”

“They wouldn’t hide evidence.” Ruby spoke up, looking between her colleagues. “I don’t understand. Why would they?” 

“There’s probably a good reason for it… right?” Even as she said it, Yang felt a strange tug in her chest, like she’d lied without meaning to.

“I don’t know. But I intend to find out.”

Blake snapped a picture on her phone.

\--


	2. Doubt

Ruby felt sick.

It wasn’t that it was almost dinner time and she hadn’t had time for breakfast. It wasn’t the oppressive July heat beating down through the windows of the station, or the punishing uniform she wore that absorbed all of it. It wasn’t the caffeine, either, though honestly she probably shouldn’t have drank so much of it on so little sleep, and admittedly it was contributing a bit. She didn’t know _what_ it was, exactly, just that she had a strange gnawing sensation in her stomach that slowly and steadily filled her with dread and nausea.

Maybe it was because she was stood outside Qrow’s office, preparing to press him for information.

Yang and Ruby came from a family of law enforcement, from their mothers to their father to their uncle, but only Qrow still worked at the station – Chief Detective under Chief of Police Ozpin. If anybody on the force knew about the mark, it was him, and he had to know, right? Somebody had to have reported it.

The problem was building up the courage to question him. Coffee jitters shuddered down her spine. How could she even suggest it? How could she ask without sounding as if she was accusing them of a cover-up? But she had to. She knew she had to, even if it was just to put Blake’s mind at rest.

Screw it.

“Hey Uncle Qrow. Whatcha doin’?”

Qrow slicked back his hair and leaned forward in his chair, giving his niece a practised grin - Ruby smiled back, but she wasn’t sure it was very convincing.

“Reading up on a case. Super exciting stuff. Top secret.” He winked. “You look terrible. Ozpin had you out all night?”

“Yeaaah…” Ruby said, rubbing the back of her neck. “We were trying to stop people from interrupting the forensics team at Tukson’s. But they had to check all the books…”

“Eesh, in this heat.”

“Yeah,” she laughed out again, high pitched and so obviously nervous.

Qrow looked her up and down. The sleeves of his shirt were rolled up to his elbows, the buttons undone to his chest. His tie hung loose around his shoulders and still he looked too warm under the blazing sun only amplified by the windows in his office. Ruby would never get away with dressing so casually at the station: her buttons were done right to her neck, tight and restrictive.

“You should get some rest, Petal. Tell Ozpin you’re sick.”

She took a deep breath.

 _Screw it,_ she told herself a second time.

“We found this… mark thing. In the bookstore. After forensics left.”

Qrow’s face fell to a careful mask of innocent curiosity, and it made the sinking in Ruby’s stomach worse.

“Oh?”

Her words exhaled out of her. “It was like… a circle around an eye, and then some lines coming out the side. It’s kind of hard to explain. Blake took a picture. She thinks she saw it before at one of the other crime scenes, but… she’s worried that it’s not… being taken seriously. Nobody’s mentioned it.” 

“I’m sure they’re taking it seriously.” He spoke so casually. “If it’s shown up more than once, it’s a pattern.”

“Were you told about it? Are you investigating?”

Qrow got up from his chair and moved closer, so that the desk was no longer between them. He leant back against it and looked down at her with concern.

“I can’t talk about a case.”

“So you _do_ know about it?”

He sighed. “Yeah. I’ve seen it.”

“Do you know what it is?”

“You’re gonna get me in trouble.”

She may have been twenty-one years old, but Ruby was not above puppy dog eyes – not until they stopped working. Qrow took one look at her and covered his face with his hand, defeated.

“Tell your friend to delete the picture.” Ruby frowned. “Listen, kid. You don’t know about this. Ozpin wants it kept under wraps until we can figure something out. Seeing this popping up all over the place again isn’t good. It can’t get out to the press.”

“Again?” she pushed.

“Again.” He took another deep breath. “You know, you could have found this all out with a reverse image search, but I guess there’s a reason you guys aren’t detectives.” Her frown intensified. _Rude._ “It’s the Grimm. Probably not _the_ Grimm. Just some kids who thought it’d be funny to start some trouble.”

“Who’s the Grimm?”

The fan on his desk whirred as it pushed the stuffy air around the room, failing to be useful, yet it was too warm to give up and turn it off. It filled the silence as Qrow found the words.

“The Grimm were an organisation, not a person. A group of lowlifes thought it’d be funny to give themselves a name for the media to remember them by. They ruled the underground for years and years; gave us police a hard time. A new body was found every week - anybody that got in their way. That little marking you found was their symbol.”

Ruby furrowed her brow.

“But in the end, we won, like we always do. Everyone involved was put behind bars – dead silence for twenty-odd years. So, that’s why it’s all a little ‘hush hush’ right now.”

“But why? Shouldn’t we all know if this is starting up again?” Ruby asked.

“ _If._ Look, this sort of crime wave just happens sometimes. We’ll get to the bottom of it. The Grimm are all gone. If anything, it’s just some copycat who’ll be caught by the end of the week. Don’t worry over it, ‘kay? And keep it to yourselves. Last thing we need is a panic.”

The pager on his hip buzzed. _Saved by the bell._ He scowled as he read the message, momentarily forgetting her presence, before straightening his face and walking back to ruffle her hair.

“ _Stay out of it,_ ” he reiterated. “And get something to eat. You look like you’re about to pass out.”

\--

Ruby tore the crusts off of her sandwich as she relayed what Qrow had told her to her friends, gathered around her desk having wheeled over with their lunch. It wasn’t a cover-up – not exactly. Perhaps if she were in Qrow’s and Ozpin’s situation she’d want to keep it quiet too, but she couldn’t help but think that sharing the knowledge would help apprehend the criminals even if it _did_ freak a few people out. Surely that was their ultimate goal?

It didn’t sit right with her. Nor did it her co-workers judging by their expressions when her story came to a close.

“You know, now that you mention it, I think I’ve heard about them before. A reporter mentioning the anniversary of someone’s death or something? ‘The Grimm’ really sticks with you.”

After washing her couscous down with bottled water, Weiss asked: “Do you really believe Qrow, that they caught them all?”

“I mean, mom and dad were on the force, and they were awesome at what they did,” Yang said through a mouthful of her own sandwich. “I can’t see how anybody would have got away from them.”

But Blake just gave a noncommittal hum, turning her tuna pasta around her fork, staring a hole in the carpet, and Ruby found herself agreeing with that sound more than anything else that lunch break.

\--

Cinder’s hair was loose and sleek despite the heat that plastered Emerald’s to her forehead. For one insane moment she felt the urge to comment on how good she looked, but she swallowed it down instead, waiting for her boss and visitor to speak first.

But she didn’t. Her eyes gleamed over the shabby one-bedroomed apartment with equal measures of distaste and amusement, and when they landed on the open bathroom door, they flickered towards Mercury’s jacket still hanging from the shower rail.

“Oh dear. What happened here?” she asked, honey sweet.

“Mercury was too close to Tukson when the gun went off. I managed to clean the-..”

“Mercury?” Cinder interrupted. Emerald fell silent immediately, like a chastised child. She turned to her partner who lay outstretched on the floor beside the open window, struggling with the lack of air conditioning; he cocked his head and gave a shrug, nonplussed, not even looking at her – how did he do it? Emerald couldn’t help but stare when Cinder entered the room. She commanded attention.

“I shot him in the head. There was some spray. It’s gone now.”

Cinder hummed. As always, it was impossible to tell what she was thinking, but it felt dangerous nonetheless. It seemed ages before she finished inspecting their living conditions; when she did, she signified it with a small sigh.

“We are moving ahead with the plan. I want you both ready for tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” Emerald echoed, grin creeping onto her face. Cinder smiled like a snake.

“In this weather?” asked Mercury, and she’d almost feel sorry for his suffering if he wasn’t such an asshole. 

“Tomorrow,” Cinder said again. With that, she turned on her heel and left them to the sounds of traffic passing by on the streets below.

\--


	3. A Long, Long Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for blood and violence.

Crime always spiked in the summer, or so the senior officers said. Kids were out of school, searching for something fun to fill the long, hot days; families on holiday, leaving their homes a beacon of temptation for thieves and squatters; brawls in bars with extended opening hours, where people turned to cold beers as a means to cool down - that sort of thing. Statistics showed that everything was normal.

Ruby sighed. No matter how she tried to rationalise it, six murders in three weeks was not normal.

“Was it awful?” Nora asked. She leaned against Ren’s shoulder as if he were furniture, and he batted her away like a troublesome fly.

“Terrible,” said Yang, sincere, though unable to keep that small trace of excitement of being a first-hand witness to the crime scene out of her tone. “There was blood everywhere. Poor Tukson…”

“It’s so sad,” Blake agreed. “I wish we could do more to put a stop to this.”

Blake shared a look with Ruby, as if asking permission. Qrow had told them to keep it quiet; he didn’t want a panic, he didn’t want anything leaked to the press. It was reasonable, she told herself. She rubbed her wrist, not meeting Blake’s eyes.

“There was something…” Blake began, anyway.

The door to Ozpin’s office swung open. Pyrrha exited, blinking once in surprise at having the sudden attention of the entire station. She offered them a sweet smile, but it was a tired one – apparently the weather was getting even to her. Ozpin himself made his way into the room after, hands held together neatly behind his back, giving the room’s occupants a searching glance which left Ruby feeling strangely… examined, like she was being sized up for a faire.

“We have received an anonymous tip,” he began, voice soft but firm like an old school master, “that suggests that we can expect an attack at Vale News Network this afternoon. The nature of this attack we do not know, but given our current circumstances, we are to take all threats seriously.”

“Officers Rose, Schnee, Belladonna, and Xiao Long: I would like you to head there now. Plain clothes. Keep an eye out for anything suspicious.”

“Arc, Valkyrie, Nikos, Ren: follow after them, but stay out of sight. We do not want to draw too much attention to our presence, but it may be necessary. Report back anything out of the ordinary.”

Despite herself, nervous excitement bubbled in Ruby’s stomach.

\--

“Oh, boy. I just can’t _wait_ to bump into the weathergirl. Isn’t VNN so much _fun?_ ”

“Shut up _,_ Mercury.”

He smirked to himself. If he had to be miserable spending the entire day at a news studio, then so did she. God, he wasn’t being paid enough for this - a thought that suggested he was being paid at all, which he absolutely wasn’t. That he had nothing better to do was probably kind of depressing, so he shoved the thought to the back of his mind and smiled sarcastically at the staff zipping from screen to screen. He needn’t have bothered: they were ignored entirely. Just a couple of tourists taking in the sights.

“Do you think anyone’s even going to show up?” Emerald asked.

Before he could respond someone jostled past him, smacking into his shoulder, almost powerful enough to knock him back off his feet. A hand caught him before he could fall, however, and when he looked his accidental assailant in the eye he had to supress his surprise.

“Jeez, Yang,” said a woman from behind her.

“Wow, sorry! I was _not_ looking where I was going. Are you okay?” the blonde officer from before - Yang, apparently - asked, an easy grin on her face, her hand holding his wrist.

He saw the moment of recognition flicker in her eyes.

“Don’t I know you?” he asked, quickly, before she could. The best way to avoid suspicion was to bring it up first, of course - play innocent. For him it wasn’t the easiest thing to pretend, but he didn’t trust that Cinder would be merciful if he managed to give them away early.

“For God’s sake, we don’t have time for a reunion.” Another officer he recognised, one with long white hair tied in a bun on top of her head, jumped between them and pushed her co-worker forward. “Excuse my friend. Have a nice day.”

Yang gave him a half-hearted wave over her shoulder as she was taken away, and the four officers, plain clothed, disappeared behind a slew of cameramen as quickly as they had come.

When they were out of sight, Mercury turned to Emerald with a grin. “Showtime.”

\--

Knowing what they were looking for would have been nice – ‘suspicious activity’ was easy to miss when you had no idea who was supposed to be where anyway. It wouldn’t be long until the twelve o’clock news broadcast began: the place was teaming with people getting into place. People who would be badly hurt if something serious was about to go down…

Ruby pulled at the collar of her t-shirt. With all her nervous fidgeting, she probably looked more suspicious than the actual criminals. Whoever they were.

“I don’t see anything,” said Yang, voicing Ruby’s own thoughts. Weiss gave a huff of agreement beside her, fanning herself with one of the booklets they’d been handed upon entry. Security had done their usual checks at the entrance, but it wasn’t impossible for somebody to find a makeshift weapon inside the studio. There were a few tour groups around, mostly comprised of children and families, none of which seemed likely suspects for the murders, and everyone else seemed to have lanyards around their necks declaring their right to be there.

Somewhere she heard the jingle that signified the beginning of the broadcast, and a giant screen on the outer wall of studio four flickered on, displaying a smartly dressed woman with lilac hair: Lisa Lavender, one of the top news anchors in the country. Settling her papers on her desk, she looked into the camera and began to speak, tone cool and pronunciation perfect.

“Good afternoon. Our top story today: Vale continues to reel in the aftermath of the sixth unsolved homicide this month. Tukson Sabre was found dead in his store in the early hours of Monday morning. Police are urging any potential witnesses to step forward and put an end to the string of violent crime terrorising our town.”

A grimace tightened Ruby’s face. It was one thing being unable to solve the case; another entirely to remember how many people were watching, waiting for some step forwards. The public needed reassurance and Ruby wanted so badly to give it to them, but as it stood, all they could do was remind them to remain calm and repeat that they were on the case. For all the good that was doing.

“In other news-“

There was a gunshot. The screen went blank.

Before Ruby could even think of forming a question, three more shots fired off somewhere in the studio and they were moving, sprinting towards the noise against the tide of staff and guests who hurriedly pushed past them to get to safety. She reached for her radio.

“This is Officer Rose at VNN Studios. Something’s happening – there was an explosion, I think the broadcast was cut off-..”

“We’re on our way!” Jaune’s voice was barely audible over the sounds of the public’s panic.

“It came from studio two. You guys go check in on Lisa and we’ll-..”

“Got it!”

They screeched to a stop.

Studio two was completely vacant. Camera equipment ran without supervision recording an empty green screen while noise spiked violently on the sound display. A vague smoky scent hung in the air, but what it was or where exactly it had come from Ruby couldn’t place. There were no injured – not that she could see, anyway. In fact, the room was eerily still.

Something rattled behind them.

“Hey!” Yang called out.

A streak of green and silver disappeared through the back entrance.

\--

“Meet you back at the shithole?”

“Don’t get caught.”

They waited until the officers were in range before splitting up.

\--

“Weiss, come with me! Yang, Blake-...”

“Got it,” Yang said, setting off in pursuit of the man with Blake on her tail.

She _knew_ she recognised him – she must have seen him around the station, maybe even arrested him before. Up ahead he weaved awkwardly between the remaining staff who were suddenly quite stationary, but whatever it was that had so thoroughly grabbed their attention, Yang didn’t have time to check – there was no way she was letting the silver haired man escape, not when he could be responsible for the murders.

They were faster than him - soon they would catch up. But when she was in touching distance, he turned with a wicked grin plastered on his stupid face and threw the nearest civilian into her, bowling her over onto Blake. With a painful _crack_ they landed on pavement – Blake let out a groan from beneath and scrambled to get free, but the pileup had worked: when Yang rose, head spinning, she saw him one last time with his hand to his forehead in a mocking salute before he vanished completely into the crowd.

_Oh._

\--

“She’s getting away!”

If only there weren’t so many _people_ between them and their target, Ruby knew she could outrun her. Weiss was already lagging behind, but she couldn’t give up pursuit - not when she could be responsible for those murders.

“Excuse me!” Ruby yelled, some mixture of polite and desperate as the staff stood immobile, uselessly, blocking their path and staring upwards at the giant outdoor screen. _What were they staring at?_

Ruby looked up just as the sound kicked in.

“..- really trust them? Do you really think that they can protect you, when all they do is lie to keep you placated? Do you want to know who is really to blame for your little crime wave? You should look no further than your own Chief of Pol-..”

“Put your hands up!” a voice called off camera. Ruby could feel her heart throbbing dangerously in her throat. 

“That’s Pyrrha,” she said to Weiss, but her partner was already nearly out of sight, hands almost on the green haired girl who had stopped to watch the screen too.

Instinct kicked in and pulled her towards studio one, no longer bothering to ask the strangers to move out of her way: now she shoved past them urgently, suddenly sure that _that_ woman on the screen was the one responsible for the crimes and their priority target. If she was confident enough to give herself away on live television, what else could she do? What did she have planned?

She quickly wished she’d never asked.

Two final gunshots rang out and the panic spread through the public once again. Ruby didn’t see it happen on the screen: she saw it happen ten feet away from her, ten feet too late to help. Pyrrha, the best officer they had, the kindest person she knew, crumpled to her knees then fell flat on her back, gasping as blood pooled out rapidly beneath her.

She might have called out Pyrrha’s name as she threw herself into the woman, and her eyes might have been stinging with tears, breath caught in her throat, and there might have been more voices behind her – familiar ones, but ones she couldn’t properly distinguish over the beating of her heart in her ears. Later when Yang shook her by the shoulders and begged her to be careful, demanded to know what she was thinking charging an armed woman to the ground without backup, Ruby couldn’t remember any of it. Only the cold clink of metal and the feeling of her back beneath her knee as she tugged her arms back and cuffed her.

\--

“This is a joke!”

Yang paced the tarmac outside the studio, arms gesturing wildly with her every word.

“Ozpin doesn’t tell us shit and thinks he can just send us into some setup and get us all killed? What was he thinking? Who does he think he is? Pyrrha could be _dead._ Ruby could have died too, and for what? To stop panic? There’s panic _now_!”

“Yang…” Blake placed her hand on her arm, sucking the fight out of her.

Behind them, the camera whirled, red light flickering a warning.

\--

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll post two chapters now since I'm gone until Monday and I've already edited these ones... hope you enjoy!


	4. Bad Cop

“..- doesn’t tell us shit and thinks he can just send us into some setup and get us all killed?”

The six o’clock news played to a silent station; a mane of blonde hair pacing the screen unaware until Yang’s face came into focus, eyes sparking like fireworks in her fury.

Ruby couldn’t watch.

She pushed off of her desk and pressed her ear against the door of Ozpin’s office. Inside, Yang and Glynda were still discussing the day’s events. Ozpin was off doing damage control – a pang of sympathy plucked at her chest for him having to deal with all that had happened, but not as strong as the one she felt for Yang.

“I didn’t even know it was filming!” she heard Yang say through the thin office walls. The wavering in her voice suggested she was desperately trying to keep her temper, and after everything that had happened, Ruby couldn’t blame her for struggling.

Their voices fell back to a quiet murmur. Ruby closed her eyes, trying to focus.

“Hey.”

A hand touched her shoulder - she must have jumped a foot in the air.

“Whoa, it’s just me.”

Ruby exhaled, deflating. “Hey, Weiss.”

“They’re still in there?”

Ruby hummed and nodded, then leaned back against the wall. The hand remained on her - a comforting gesture that she had yet to experience from Weiss, but one that she appreciated more because of it.

What a day.

Jaune took the ambulance with Pyrrha. She had still been breathing when they loaded her onto the stretcher, but even Ruby could see how unpromising her injuries were. If she died because of those monsters… but at least they had caught them. Two of them, between Ruby and Weiss - Cinder Fall and Emerald Sustrai according to the files, both previous convicts. If Pyrrha was dead… they’d pay. They would _definitely_ pay.

… The threat she issued in her mind didn’t sound very convincing. Neither did it make her feel any better.

“Blake went home,” Weiss said, breaking the silence between them. “She needed some time to think.”

Ruby nodded.

“Maybe you should head home too…”

Ruby shook her head.

Eventually Yang left the office and started at the sight of them standing there. The fire in her eyes had extinguished into something much worse.

“I’m suspended,” she said, voice quiet and empty. Ruby threw her arms around her sister, but the hug was one-sided and Yang just stood there, wilting.

\--

She murmured she was going home. She lied.

\--

_Stupid._

Emerald’s hands were still cuffed behind her back.

_Stupid._

The walls around her were impenetrable.

_Stupid._

She was all alone.

Two gunshots rang out and she stopped. She stopped and she turned and she stared at the screen, terrified. If Cinder had died… if she had died, she would never have forgiven herself. Without her she had nothing. Inside the station she had nothing.

She couldn’t go back to that.

“If you cooperate, we might be able to reduce your sentence.” Emerald didn’t know who the man speaking was, and she didn’t care.

“Do you have a lawyer?”

_No._

“We can provide one for you.”

_I don’t care._

“A lot of people are dead, Ms. Sustrai. It’s important for you to talk to us.”

But she didn’t say a word. She stared at the two-way mirror and waited for him to leave.

\--

They weren’t coming back.

Escaping the news was impossible. _Two suspects captured, one on the loose._ He always hated Vale anyway, and that small part of him encouraging him to stay and save Emerald needed to shut the hell up – there was no way he could break her out her cell, no way he could keep her from what was coming, not when he was a wanted man. _Shut up._

There was nothing he could do but save himself, and wasn’t that always the way?

He climbed the stairs to his apartment. Well, not _his_ apartment - not Cinder’s, either. He couldn’t even remember the name of the man they had ‘borrowed’ it from. All he knew about him was that he lived in appalling conditions, and that he’d had a better room in prison.

He opened the door. Just a couple of things and he’d be out of there. His jacket, his passport. The little money he had left. His gun-..

His gun was pressed to his temple.

“ _Don’t I know you_?” a voice asked from the shadows of the doorframe.

Instinctively his palm shot out to knock the pistol from her hand, but she was just as fast: she grabbed his arm and twisted it behind his back rough enough to make him pause, not enough to stop him altogether. Ducking and turning he freed himself and tackled her to the ground and she gasped out as her head collided with the floor, but still she pressed the barrel into his chest, unwavering.

“Not a good idea,” he hissed, and the second he opened his mouth her fist collided with his jaw and _Jesus shit_ what kind of strength did that woman have? Before he could even think to retaliate he was on his back and she sat on top of him, straddling him, holding him down. In the faint light that crept through the still open door he saw the flicker of triumph in her eyes behind the strands of hair that fell from her ponytail, the brief smirk that twitched at her lips, the fast rise and fall of her chest as she caught her breath. _Damn._

Idly, he wished he had learned not to underestimate people.

She patted him down: his arms, his sides, his thighs.

“At least buy me dinner first,” he quipped, earning him a swift punch to the diaphragm that knocked the breath out of him that ended in a dry snicker, and God, she was still going until her hand stopped below his knee and she paused. He didn’t have to see her face to know what expression was hanging there. He lay still. Thinking. One second later and her fingers locked around his collar, pulling him half off the ground.

“Your little friend might have killed mine,” Yang said, venomous, not addressing what she’d felt below his knees.

“Your little friends locked mine up in a cell – what’s the difference?”

She let him go. “Don’t try anything. I can take you.”

“I bet.”

He stood up. He clicked his neck. She planted herself between him and the only exit. _Damn, what a fire hazard._

“How’d you find me?” he asked. Buying time.

“I saw you and Emerald-“ she knew her name “- here, on the night of Tukson’s murder. You know, someone once told me cases of squatting increase in the summer - all I had to do was ask the landlord who was on holiday. You’re a little cocky.”

“So I’ve been told,” Mercury said. But so was she. Through her anger he could see the pride in her posture for being the one to find him - like he hadn’t made it easy for her. Why had he done that, again?

“What do you want?” he asked.

“Your help,” she said.

_Interesting._

“And what makes you think I’m going to help you?”

He paced the room. Somehow she didn’t feel the need to point his gun at him again, and for that he was impressed; she really did think she could take him, she really was that cocky. He smirked to himself.

“I’m the only person who knows where you are. You tell me what I want to know, and nobody else finds out.”

His palms flattened against the windowsill. He looked down at the streets below. Eh. He’d survived worse things – what was he going to do, break a leg?

“Ooh, a bad cop.”

“I’m not a cop right now. Suspended.”

“A _very_ bad cop.”

He hooked his fingers beneath the pane and pulled.

It didn’t budge.

The light flickered on.

In Yang’s hand lay a tiny silver key. She smiled wryly, and he couldn’t help it: he laughed.

“Cute.” He leaned back against the firmly locked window. Ah, what the hell - he didn’t really give two shits about Cinder anyhow, and an extra pair of hands might be useful with who he was running from. “Ask away.”

\--


	5. Q&A

So much had gone wrong so quickly.

Pyrrha was in hospital - still alive, but far from stable. Ruby didn’t know the details; the only person she could ask was Jaune, and he was inconsolable, so the last thing she wanted to do was force him tell her everything. She'd neither seen nor heard from Ren and Nora since they drove down to the hospital hours ago.

Yang was suspended, and she just couldn’t get over how completely unfair it was. How could she be in trouble for reacting to her friend being shot? Anybody could have exploded like that, but Yang was the one paying the price, and Ruby couldn’t stop worrying about the look on her face when she left the station.

And speaking of worry: Blake wouldn’t answer her phone, and when Weiss stopped by her apartment to check on her she was quickly shooed away. Although it was hardly unlike her to hide when things became stressful, it did little to quell the concern gnawing away in Ruby’s mind.  _God dammit._

“She won’t talk. Neither of them.”

Things were only getting worse.

Apparently there was only one way to learn information in Vale. Ruby stopped at the end of the corridor and listened.

“Not a word?”

“Cinder’s all riddles and smirks. Emerald won’t even look at us, let alone speak.”

“I guess it’s not the first time for either of them… they’ll talk eventually.”

What would happen if they didn’t say anything? They’d go to prison, sure, but what if there were more out there they were protecting? At least one more was – the silver haired man who’d managed to evade them. Would he carry on killing without them? Her head was a mess. Everything seemed so precarious. She bet Pyrrha would know what to do. She bet Pyrrha would just offer to help everywhere they’d let her and find a way to get to the bottom of things.

Well. It was time to be Pyrrha.

“Can I try and talk to them?” Ruby asked, poking her head around to officers in discussion.

They looked at her.

\--

“What are you planning?”

Mercury, the first thing she’d asked him, sat on the floor, back against the wall. At night the air was cooler, but she wished she could trust him enough to open the window anyway; the room was static, and a bad smell hung in her nostrils like damp or mould - hardly the best place they could have found, but she supposed it was the location that mattered. He held one knee to his chest and stretched the other out in front of him, perfectly, annoyingly casual despite his situation. They were fake – prosthetics from the knee down. That she had not expected.

“Me?” he asked. “I’m not planning anything."

“So you’re not in charge?”

He snorted. “I think you already knew that.”

Yang leaned back in the only chair in the room.

“Who is, then? Cinder?”

“Nope,” he said.

Thinking that the process of questioning him would be anything less than pulling teeth even for a second was a mistake on her behalf, for in the short minutes she had known him she had realised a few things: one, that he was smart enough to relent when she had the upper-hand in the fight, and smart enough to let her question him until he found an opportunity to escape (his eyes travelled the room, always searching); two, he was reckless/careless enough to consider jumping out the window, and would definitely have no qualms with killing her or anybody else; and three, he liked having something that she wanted and would absolutely make her work for it. 

“Salem.”

Four: he was unpredictable.

\--

Emerald seemed younger up close – not much older than Ruby, surely, perhaps Yang’s age at most. Her cheeks were full and round, her eyes large and maroon. Dark roots had begun to show on her head, stark and uniform against the mint green of her hair. She was very pretty, and Ruby had a lot of time to consider all of this, because Emerald hadn’t said a word since she walked in, and she needed to think about _something_ to ignore the heavy silence.

“So…” Ruby began, pacing around the room, far too nervous to sit down. She had expected to be angrier in her presence, but seeing how… normal she looked, how human, sucked some of it away. The silence stretched on, thick and tense in the air. Now she was just nervous.

Ruby inspected the walls instead. _Yep - pretty secure_. She looked out the two-way mirror – also secure. Emerald’s cuffs? Secure. And thanks to the cameras dotted all around, she also felt… secure.

She sighed. What was she thinking? She’d never questioned a murder suspect before.

“Oh my God. Will you stand still?” Emerald snapped. Ruby jumped, whipped around to face her again.

“Oh! Uh, sorry.”

“Are you an officer or what?”

“I am! I am.” Ruby sat down opposite her hurriedly. “Does this mean you’re ready to talk?” she asked, hopefully.

Emerald fell back into silence.

 _No, no._ Ruby had this. She was _going_ to talk.

“Your friend got away. The one with silver hair. Any idea where he went?”

Emerald’s gaze was so piercing it made it difficult to maintain eye contact, and though she wavered Ruby swallowed the lump in her throat and forced herself to hold it anyway.

“We need to know how many more of you are out there. I’m sure we can make some kind of… deal… if you help us out a little. It might mean you spend less time in prison!” _Nope._ “Do you know anything about the Grimm?” _Nothing._ “Can you tell me anything about your goals?” _Nada._

So this is what drowning felt like.

Ruby ran her hand through her hair, then rubbed the back of her neck. Why wouldn’t she talk? What could be stopping her when she'd been caught at the scene of the crime with nothing left to hide anyway?

“Are you protecting someone?” _Silence._ “Are you protecting the guy who got away?” _No response._ “Cinder?”

Those sharp eyes looked down for just a second.

“Are you protecting Cinder?”

Ruby hadn’t been allowed in to question Cinder, but from what she had overheard the woman was something else entirely; sly, manipulative, completely unperturbed by her predicament, with a sense of superiority over anybody who approached her. Of everyone they had seen, she seemed the most likely to be in charge… but much like Emerald, she was saying nothing – nothing of worth, anyway. No, they were leaving Cinder to the higher-ups, and Ruby was actually kind of grateful. At least Emerald didn’t seem _dangerous,_ all small and handcuffed and indignant _._

Or maybe she was. Something about her almost made the room turn cold – that _stare._

“Cinder’s okay.” Ruby shook herself out of her trance. That name had been the only thing she had acknowledged before so she latched onto it, and again it worked; Emerald looked at her, focused. “Well. She’s causing a lot of trouble, I think, but she’s not hurt. Are you friends?”

“Did she mention me?” Emerald asked, almost at the same time as her. The question startled her; she blinked, confused.

“Um… I haven’t been in to see her myself. She knows you’re here too, though.”

“Is she angry?”

“Are you scared of her?”

Emerald furrowed her brows.

“We can offer you protection. She won’t get to you if you talk, I promise.”

“It’s not like that!” she snapped again. Ruby straightened her back like she’d been whipped – she wasn’t even been aware she was slouching. As quickly as her temper had spiked it faded, and she squinted her eyes closed like she was quietly chastising herself. Her moment of honesty passed as quickly as it came and she scoffed, expression returning to neutral, walls rebuilding themselves around her. No matter what she asked from then on, Emerald remained steely, uninterested. Tired.

Ruby was tired too. When she left, she promised she would be back. Emerald _would_ tell her what was happening. Nothing would stop her from solving the case.

\--

“Tell me about Salem, then.”

“Oh, you’ll have to be more direct than that,” Mercury smirked as he leant forward, fist pressed into his cheek. Cocky asshole. Yang took a deep breath. She could deal with cocky assholes.

“Where is she?”

“I don’t know.”

“What’s her full name?”

“I don’t know.”

“What does she look like?”

“ _I don’t know_.” Yang scowled at him. “What? I never met her. Cinder did all the groundwork.”

Yang hummed and slowly swivelled around in the chair. There was an air of honesty about him in the sense that he didn’t seem to care enough to lie, but a name wasn’t enough to go on - he had to know more. She just had to ask the right questions.

“How did you meet Cinder and Emerald?”

Now Mercury hummed, a little noise of thought, and he took a look out of the window and tapped his extended leg agitatedly against the floor. _It’ll go quicker if you cooperate,_ she thought to herself, but he knew that as well as she did, and if he wanted to waste their time, so be it - she didn’t exactly have anything else to do, now, either.

“When I got out of prison. Cinder ‘recruited’ me.” There was a touch of something in his tone that she didn’t quite recognise: annoyance? Frustration? Amusement? He was difficult to read, but she pushed on anyway.

“What were you in prison for?”

“Manslaughter.”

“Who did you kill?”

“Are you a cop or a journalist?” he asked, flashing her a grin that didn’t reach his eyes. He was right, of course – she didn’t need to know, but the sudden change that came over him interested her, and she definitely wanted to.

“Was it the same for Emerald?” she asked. Mercury shrugged. “What did she say she was recruiting you for?”

“I don’t know, blondie,” he said as irritation finally settled in. “Something about chaos, something about revenge. It sounded like fun. Are we done?”

“Did Cinder recruit anybody else?”

Mercury pushed off of the ground quickly and Yang took the pistol from her lap. The smirk that split across his lips at her reaction made her feel like he’d done it on purpose, just to keep her on edge, to test if she was scared.

“Just stretching my legs,” he said innocently. Yang rolled her eyes. She kept the gun in her hand. He looked around the room again, but if he was looking for a way out, he was out of luck - she _knew_ she’d got every exit, every hidden weapon, and if he wanted to charge at her then, well, it wasn’t going to end well for him - Yang was an excellent shot.

“Did Cinder recruit anyone else?”

“Two conmen called Roman and Neo. They work at the casino on Broad Street. Go bother them.”

He ran his hand along the bedside table and opened the drawer - she allowed herself her own private smirk. When he realised his passport was gone his fingers drummed against the wood and she heard him inhale for two, exhale for four, then he turned back to face her, whatever moment of rage he had had carefully cleared from his face. He smiled sarcastically and held out his hands.

“Anything else?”

She was more than a little proud about breaking that cool persona, even for a second.

“Oh, yeah. You’re coming with me.”

\--


	6. A Good Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains Roman and Neo! Since none of us have any idea of their ages/what they are to each other in canon, for the sake of this story (and for a friend who ships them like nobody's business) they're both adults and in a relationship. Figured it could use a warning for people who headcanon them differently!

His gun wasn’t intimidating in her hands; there was no doubt in his mind that he could take it from her, nor that she wouldn’t have the nerve to shoot him anyway. His photograph had yet to be plastered all over Vale, which probably meant that the only people who knew of his involvement were Yang and her gang of junior detectives. If he was quick about it, he could probably kill her, grab his passport, and maybe he could get out of Vale before anybody dragged him down to the station. Hell, he could probably even find someone to make him a fake one - he knew enough shady places in town.

That was not what he was doing. Instead, he walked alongside Yang to the casino, freely.

Since finishing his time in prison, Mercury had devoted his life to one thing and one thing only: whichever thing was most fun. Crime was pretty fun - you could never be bored planning the perfect theft, the unexplained kill. Watching a suspended cop who thought she was hot shit try and figure out a crime spree far, far beyond her paygrade? Less fun, but still better than trying to escape the town, than being back behind bars, than facing his boss’s wrath. Besides, there was a sense of adventure about Yang; he could always just give her a chance to entertain him and see where it went from there.

He wondered if he’d kill her.

“This is the place,” he said, cheerily. Yang eyed him with suspicion.

The casino was run-of-the-mill, bright lights and slot machines, noisy and colourful but falling short of glamour in the tiny town. A legion of bouncers and security guards lined the entrance as they always did, but he thought perhaps there were more in the wake of the string of crimes he’d helped to commit. Everyone was running scared these days. He kind of liked it.

“Why do I get the feeling you won’t get in the front door?” Yang asked.

“You _are_ smart.” All sarcasm and bite. A flicker of annoyance crossed over her face, but she otherwise ignored the remark.

“Show me a different way, then. I’m not leaving you out here.”

“ _So_ smart,” he teased. “Come on.”

She hopped the fence after him, graciously, no questions asked, and he had to wonder what a girl like her was ever doing on the police force – had she always been so quick to break the law, or was this a side-effect of her suspension? The alley between the casino and the neighbouring bar was narrow, and the fire door opened with a swift kick. Before she entered she paused, inspecting a little mark on the red brick wall: a small eye sketched in marker. Well, he was sure Salem’d be glad that _somebody_ picked up on it. He pretended not to notice and took a step inside.

“It stinks,” Yang groaned. The door opened into a stairwell that was obviously used more as a urinal than for escaping fires.

“What, you’ve never been to a casino before?”

“Not this one,” she admitted. “Gambling’s not really my thing.”

“What is your thing?”

“What are you, a journalist?”

He smirked.

They took the stairs to the third floor, where he recalled the manager’s office being located. He’d only been there twice before: once when he had been introduced to Roman and Neo, and again when he’d been sent with a threat for them. Gambling wasn’t really his thing, either - you needed to have money for something like that, and he very rarely did.

“You forgot to mention they’re in charge here,” Yang said, reading the name outside the office door. _Roman Torchwick._

“You didn’t ask.”

The door was unlocked; the office was empty. He took a seat in the tacky, cushy chair behind it, resting his legs on the desk. After some consideration, Yang lay back on the equally garish sofa to the side of the room and took in her surroundings.

“Did I mention Roman and Neo hate me?” Mercury asked.

“Nope,” Yang said. “Well, this is going to be fun.”

He certainly hoped so.

\--

Pyrrha was still unconscious.

Yang was still suspended.

Blake was still ignoring their calls.

Alright, it had only been a few hours, and Ruby hadn’t really expected things to change so soon, but those three facts ran through her mind over and over, faster than she could tell them to _chill out_ and _be patient,_ because things would get better _._ They always did.

“You managed to get Emerald to speak to you, though. That’s good news,” Weiss tried as Ruby slumped over her phone, sighing. It went to voice mail.

“I think I just annoyed her,” she admitted.

That didn’t matter to her superiors, however, who showered her with praise for even the smallest step forwards, and it _was_ the smallest step forwards – Emerald told her nothing. She had learned only one thing: Emerald was completely and utterly devoted to Cinder. All that said was that it would be impossible to get her to speak out against her. Bad news.

“Ruby Rose, if anyone can annoy the truth out of someone, I am positive it’s you.”

For the first time that day, Ruby smiled. “Gee, thanks.”

Regardless, a gnawing sense of doubt clouded her mind, reminding her that the day was not yet over.

\--

The first to enter the room was a lanky, fiery-haired man with a cheap red waistcoat to match. Even with the lack of air conditioning in the building he seemed well put together; hair neat, eyeliner crisp. A cigar hung from his lips but dropped to the floor when he saw Mercury lounging around in his seat.

“How’s it going?” Mercury asked, cocking his chin, shit eating grin plastered across his face. God, he seemed so proud of himself. “I brought a friend. Hope you don’t mind.”

“We’re not friends.” She offered a lazy wave from her sofa anyway.

It dawned on her that she was doing something very, very stupid, with some very, very dangerous people.

Maybe she should have slept on her plan.

Roman took their presence in, nodding his head slowly at something unsaid. His foot stomped down on the cigar, extinguishing it.

“You know, she’s going to have to send someone a lot better than you to scare me.” He was British; she had not expected that, either, and he punctuated his words with his hands, entirely animated when he spoke.

Mercury laughed. “Still sleeping with that little kid?”

On cue, a blur of pink and brown whipped through the door and yanked the chair from beneath Mercury in a shocking display of speed and strength, sending him crashing to the ground. Yang snorted, laughed out loud when Mercury shot her a _look_ as he straightened out his clothes and rose back to his feet.

“Missed you too, Neo.”

“She’s twenty-six,” Roman said to Yang in an attempt to clear his name. It seemed strangely normal for him to have unexplained visitors in his office; past the initial surprise, he hardly seemed concerned by them at all.

“We weren’t sent by anybody,” Yang intervened before the three of them could begin bickering in earnest. Roman looked at her properly, then, eyed her up and down, before splitting into a dangerous grin.

“Oh, I _know_ you. You’re that cop - whose little rant was filmed for all of Vale to see. Guess they didn’t take too kindly to you questioning them, huh?” Yang sighed, only amusing him further. “What’re you doing hanging out with _this_ guy?”

He jerked his thumb at Mercury, now stood leaning against the wall like he hadn’t just been overturned by four feet and eleven inches of fury. Neo took his seat and looked between Roman and Yang in silence.

“I just have a few questions,” she said.

“Yeaaah… I am _not_ speaking into your wire. Ask your little cop friends: this business is legitimate, and _you_ are trespassing, so why don’t you just-“

“Why did you think Mercury was sent by someone? Aren’t you working for them anymore?”

“Again, I’m not stupid.”

Mercury rolled his eyes. “She’s not wearing a wire. She’s working alone. She’s a _vigilante_ now.”

“Shut _up,_ ” Yang narrowed her eyes at Mercury, and jabbed her finger towards Roman. She wanted _some_ semblance of control in her situation, though it seemed to fade away with every second that passed. “Just give me what I want and we’ll be out of your hair.”

Roman folded his arms, giving a hum of interest. After a few moments he shrugged his shoulders, took another out of its packet, put it between his lips. Neo tossed him a lighter that he caught one handed: he lit it, inhaled, exhaled the fumes, looked back to her. Yang did her best to look bored, but she couldn’t help but watch his every movement.

“What do you want to know? And – keep in mind – it’s been a while since we were involved. Our information might be a little…” he waved his hand in a circle, thinking of the word, “… dated.”

“Tell me about Salem.”

He clicked his tongue and looked to Mercury. “You really do run your mouth.”

Mercury winked.

“Salem’s the one who runs this show.”

“I know that,” said Yang. “Tell me something new. Where is she? What does she look like? What’s her full name?”

“Ha!” Roman laughed. “Oh, jeez, you do not know much. We’ve never seen her, sunshine: Cinder’s her mask.”

“But it’s not over just because Cinder’s in prison, is it?”

“Well… it’s definitely going to push back her plans.”

“And what are her plans?”

“Beats me, kid.” Roman shrugged his shoulders. “Cinder promised she’d get the cops off our backs if we helped her and the Grimm here and there, what, a year ago? Get her into a few buildings, give her new recruits a place to meet up…”

“Help her kill a few people?”

Neo’s eyes were sharp, glaring a hole into the side of her head. Of all the criminals she had met, something about Neo put her on edge the most and she was so glad there was a desk between them, though it had hardly slowed her down when she attacked Mercury. Yang had a feeling she could do a lot more with those tiny hands.

Roman puffed on his cigar. “Nope.” He popped the ‘p’. “Not us. That’s more the Grimm’s territory. Them and your new best friend.”

Mercury cocked his head, saying nothing.

“Tell me about the Grimm.”

“You know, I’m running a business here, and you are just eating into my time-“

“Officer or not, everything you’ve told me is pretty incriminating, and I’m sure I have a lot of friends on the force who would just love to take you down. Tell me what I want to know.”

Roman chuckled at her tone and shared a look with Neo, who grinned back at him in a way that felt incredibly patronising, but all she could do was keep her face straight and refuse to bite. She couldn’t be sure she could take both of them in fight, had no idea if Mercury would help her, run away, or join them if it came to it, so the last thing she needed was to lose her temper with them and actually initiate it.

“The Grimm are an underground network of... oh, I don’t know, mercenaries. They’ve been going on for longer than you’ve been alive – what are you, twenty?”

“Twenty-three.”

“Close enough. They’ve got eyes everywhere and just _love_ to make a scene… whenever they actually get anything done. Threatening letters, symbols, all that jazz. Your cop friends thought they’d put a stop to them, Salem took over, and now they’re back.”

“What are their goals?” she asked, unrelenting. Roman sighed.

“Making money, revenge, fun. They say they’re an organisation but there’s not much organising going on, if you catch my meaning - it’s all for one, one for all. But if you betray them you better have a good guard, or you won’t last long.” He relaxed against his desk and blew smoke in Mercury’s direction that partially concealed his face like a little cloud of guilt. He did not wave it away. “Is that enough ‘info’ for you?”

“Only if that’s all you know,” Yang said, sweetly. Mercury snorted.

There was a noise from outside the office; rapidly approaching footsteps, dull murmuring.

“Actually, I _do_ know one more thing: this building is just _full_ of silent alarms.”

Neo raised a hand from beneath the desk and wiggled her fingers with a smile. A tug at Yang’s shirt reminded her to run: Mercury pulled her out the door, almost tripped when they saw security coming up from the stairwell. She cursed under her breath – if they caught her and dragged her back to the station Mercury would be taken in, she’d probably end up charged, and she’d never get the chance to figure out what in the hell was going on in Vale.

They headed in the opposite direction, turned the corner, ran towards the elevator, and surely that was the worst possible idea but there were no other options; they weren’t fast enough. Mercury stepped in first, pushed the button to the ground floor… and then jumped back, pulling her into an unlocked room before she even realised what was happening.

His hand clamped across her mouth. She tried to catch her breath anyway.

“They took the elevator,” a voice said, not even muffled through the thin walls. “Radio in the front doors; we’ll meet them there.”

They waited in silence until the footsteps faded away.

 _Bump. Bump._ Her heart beat hard in her chest, but she could feel Mercury’s against her back too, so at least she wasn’t the only one. She licked the palm of his hand. 

“Ugh.” He recoiled, releasing her. “’the hell, are you twelve?”

“Would you rather I elbowed you in the ribs?”

“So violent,” he said, smirk returning to his lips, wiping his hand on his jeans. “Don’t act like you’re not impressed.”

“I might have said that if you hadn’t been so quick to give yourself a pat on the back.”

Besides, they still had to get out. She walked past the bathroom sinks to the window, just big enough for them to climb through - too bad they were three floors up. A few paces to the left was a fire escape, and Yang was pretty sure she could shimmy across the wall enough to get to it, but Mercury…

“Think you can make that?” he asked, reading her mind. She nodded, and climbed out first.

\--

A quiet buzz took over the station as officer whispered to officer, secretary to secretary. Ruby took no notice of it, laying her head on her desk, wishing she was asleep at home, wishing that that she _could_ be asleep at home, but there were so many calls to handle, so much press... she had been in the station for almost an entire day, and she’d hardly even slept the night before. Outside the sun was rising. She was so tired.

“All his stuff’s gone…”

“You don’t think he would?”

Ruby rolled her head to the side, listening in.

“Ruby?”

She jumped again at Weiss’s sudden proximity to her. Her hair was falling out of its bun, and the bags under her eyes stood stark against her pale skin – which was to say, she looked about as terrible as Ruby felt. And, well, probably looked.

Weiss shifted from foot to foot.

“We have a problem.”

\--


	7. Rest

“Emerald, we need to talk.”

Emerald wrinkled her nose, blinking against the stark light of the holding cell. She wasn’t sure if she’d been sleeping or not, but she had definitely lost time lying on the stiff, thin mattress beneath the gated window. Someone had said her name... she rubbed at her eyes and tried to focus, to remember what had happened.

Ruby squeezed the bars of her cage, and Emerald may not have been sure if she had slept, but Ruby _definitely_ hadn’t - she almost looked ill, certainly worried. The day’s events trickled back to her, thick and slow. Emerald didn’t move.

“Please, Emerald. I need to know about Ozpin.”

_Ozpin._ So something had happened, something to make Ruby doubt. Emerald rolled onto her side, just enough for Ruby to see the side of her face as she spoke. “Why would I tell you about _your_ boss?”

“He’s gone. I’m worried,” she said, voice hoarse with exhaustion.

“You should be,” she replied dully. “Ozpin’s not what he seems.”

For once the little officer had nothing to say and that should have been a blessing, but somehow her silence felt heavier than her words, lingering in her cell, bothering her. Emerald sighed, pushed herself up on the bed – how could she sleep with that presence hovering around? Only a few hours had passed since the first time she’d spoken to Ruby, but already she had painted what she thought was a pretty good picture of the girl: young, gentle, trusting – not really cop material at all. It should have been endearing, but more than anything it infuriated her, made the hate inside her feel dirty in comparison.  

The temperature began to rise again with the early morning sun.

“There was nothing for me when I was released,” she said. Ruby must have already seen her files – they had her fingerprints on record. “No home, no money, no family. Nowhere would hire me. All I could do was go back to living on the streets, stealing to survive. Ozpin doesn’t care about what happens to us. He just wants to brush us under the carpet. Not like Cinder.”

Cinder had taken her in when nobody else would. Cinder promised her a better future. Cinder kept her safe. She wanted all of them to understand what they had been doing to those less fortunate few, locking them away then throwing them back to the streets in a vicious cycle of cruelty, and she liked the sudden look of surprise in Ruby’s eyes, that hint of discomfort at her unpredicted honesty. 

“I’m sorry that happened to you,” Ruby said, frustratingly sincere. “But what does that have to do with-..”

“Change doesn’t happen gradually,” Emerald began, mimicking her boss, her best friend. She did not sound so awe-inspiring when she spoke; the words felt empty and silly in her mouth. “Something has to cause it. It has to happen all at once for people to really pay attention.”

“Cinder wants change? What change? What’s the change?” The words came tumbling out of Ruby, rushed and confused and so very, very worried.

Emerald fixed Ruby with a stern look. She seemed to understand.

“Is Ozpin dead?”

“I don’t know,” Emerald admitted.

“All his stuff is gone.”

“Then maybe he just ran away. Wouldn’t be the first time he turned his back on his problems.” Her own tone became biting, impatient, and she almost felt guilty when Ruby looked down, knocked silent once again, but she didn’t try to comfort her.

“Ozpin’s worked with my family since before I was born,” she said, quietly. “He never hurt you on purpose. I can fix this.”

“Talk to your family, then,” Emerald said. She lay back down on the bed over the covers. “I just want to sleep.”

She heard her footsteps on the tiles fade, the door close gently. Emerald lay on her back and stared at the ceiling in the new silence, alone again.

\--

“Roman talks a lot for someone who thinks he’s a target of the Grimm,” Yang said some time after they returned to the apartment in the early hours of the morning, one precarious climb later.

“He loves the sound of his own voice,” Mercury replied, well aware of the irony. “He thinks he’s invincible. Hope you weren’t planning to go back there – he’ll have every entrance covered after that little scare.”

Mercury didn’t ask why she came back to the apartment. It seemed obvious enough that she had further plans for him, but if the night’s events were any indication of what was to come, he didn’t mind trailing along a little while longer.   

“You can sleep on the floor.”

“It’s my apartment!” Mercury scoffed. Yang looked at him blankly. “You know what I mean.”

Her lips twitched with amusement and he watched as she stowed the gun beneath her pillow, his passport in her bra, too tired to argue the point any further. It’s not like he’d ever slept on the bed before anyway; Emerald always had a knack for getting there first. Yang stripped off her jeans, and, well, she certainly wasn’t shy, definitely had no reason to be – he raised an eyebrow at the action and looked her up and down and she ignored it, throwing a pillow in his direction.

“Everything’s locked, and I’m a light sleeper, so if you try anything-..”

“You can take me. I remember,” he said, lying down beneath the window. The sun had risen - sleeping under that heat would be difficult in any other circumstance, but right then he was exhausted enough to sleep in an active volcano. It had been a long, long day.

He was out before his head hit the pillow.

\--

The anxiety and sadness that coursed through her would ease if only she could sleep, but thoughts of blood and abandonment swam endlessly through her head and made it a difficult thing to accomplish. No plans came to her as she lay in bed and she could do nothing but hope that someone else was having better luck, but the number of people who could help had dwindled so fast that she couldn’t conjure up any optimism.

_09:32am._

Ruby watched her phone on her bedside table until the screen timed out, dimming the room back to the orange glow that came in through her closed curtains. Her eyelids fluttered heavily until they shut out the light altogether, and she fell into an uneasy sleep.

\--

“Light sleeper, huh?”

Yang started, practically leaped out of bed at the sound of Mercury’s voice in her ear, and scrambled for the gun under the pillow. Her hand met metal and she exhaled – _it was still there, he hadn’t got to it_. She clasped her hand over her heart and tried to ignore Mercury’s mocking laughter.

“That’s not funny,” she hissed.

“Kind of was. It’s four. Get up.”

Yang clutched her head, pounding incessantly from fretful sleep. That and the guilt – what was she _doing_? Squatting in a stranger’s home? Breaking into a casino, running from security, all with a wanted criminal?

Finding answers – for the victims, for Pyrrha, for herself. That’s what she was doing. She steeled herself and searched for her jeans.

“So, what’s on the agenda today?” he asked from beneath a careful mask of disinterest.

Yang found them crumpled at the foot of the bed, slid into them. She could feel Mercury watching her every movement and had the distinct feeling that he was not as bored with her as he pretended to be.

She couldn’t go back to the station, not with Mercury to keep an eye on and besides, the embarrassment of suspension made the thought of seeing any of her co-workers difficult to swallow. All she had was a few names and a symbol, and without the police databases they would be difficult to link to anybody - what she really needed was more information, an explanation from somebody who had been around during the first wave of Grimm attacks, somebody who she could convince to talk, who was _free_ to talk, not like her Uncle Qrow…

The idea that formed in her head was perhaps not the best, not with who she’d have to take along with her, but it was the only one she had. With a quiet sigh she turned to Mercury and reluctantly spoke:

“I think I need to speak to my dad.”

\--

“ _Talk to your family, then.”_

Ruby awoke all at once and caught her breath. Had she been dreaming? It certainly felt like it. _What time was it?_ The sun still burned through her curtains, but that didn’t mean anything in the middle of July.

She reached out for her phone. _17:00_. She rubbed her face, groaning, and checked for missed calls – nothing. Nothing from work, nothing from Yang, nothing from Blake or Weiss. They must have wanted her to rest.

_Talk to your family, then._

Ruby sat up and held onto the edge of her bed.

Maybe she would.

\--


	8. Home

The streets were empty despite the sun still hanging low in the sky by the time they reached Taiyang’s house. It contradicted her memories of summer in the area where children would be out on the street until almost midnight, but Yang could hardly blame them for staying in – there had been no news made public about the case, and nobody wanted to be the Grimm’s next victim. It was a small comfort that it made it easier for them to go unnoticed.

“Tell me again why you need me to come with you?” Mercury asked as he walked a few steps behind her, idly taking in the neighbourhood. Everything about him seemed out of place there.

“Would you rather I lock you in the apartment?” She had seriously considered that course of action, but she couldn’t risk him breaking out, and it wasn’t as if she and her dad would be difficult to find with his mind put to it anyway if he was stupid enough to seek them out later. Her thick hair irritated her bare skin and she tossed it over her shoulder as she glanced back at him. “I don’t need you with me. I just might need you later, and don’t want you running off.”

“Ugh, how _long_ are you keeping me _hostage,_ officer?”

“This is really a best case scenario for you, so maybe you should stop complaining and just remember what I told you. If you give yourself away, you _are_ going to prison.”

“You _might_ wanna make sure that doesn’t happen, with me being your only lead.” His near-permanent smirk played at his lips and Yang narrowed her eyes, somehow resisting punching him if only because of the sudden voice calling out from the opposite side of the road that stopped her dead in her tracks, freezing her to the pavement. 

“Yang!”

 _Oh god._ There was no way she could be so unlucky…

“Yang! I didn’t think you’d be here,” Ruby said, slowing to an awkward jog as she crossed over to them. Mercury hid his face in the crook of his arm, rubbing his nose - at least the boy had _some_ sense.

“Uh, yeah! I just thought I’d see how dad was doing.” She scratched at her neck like Ruby didn’t know all of her nervous ticks. “You know. With all the murders. What are you doing here?” 

“Actually, I kind of wanted to talk to him about-..” but Ruby trailed off, aware that the man beside her had stopped too, that he was listening in. Yang held her breath as she smiled at the stranger, and for a few moments Ruby’s expression was blissfully blank, unknowing… then all at once the realisation washed over her.

“What- is that- what are you-..?” her voice pitched up, increasingly high, as if she were inflating with helium and about to pop. Yang’s hand shot out to cover her mouth.

“Ruby, listen to me, I know how this looks-..”

Her younger sister licked her hand and she groaned, wiping the spit on her jeans – she’d deserved that. Mercury snorted, put his hands in his pockets, mercifully silent as Yang thought of a way to explain.

How could she explain? Ruby stared up at her, lost.

“This is, uh, a little earlier than I’d like to have done this,” she said, when what she meant was she’d kind of hoped she’d never had to do it at all. “This is Mercury. He’s helping me find out what’s going on around here and I’m… keeping an eye on him.”

“Hey,” Mercury greeted, and it was almost as if he really were just a friend being introduced to her sister for the first time… or would have been if not for the twitch of his lips that betrayed his true nature. “How’s Em doing?”

“Yang…”

She sounded so _concerned_ that Yang couldn’t even look her in the eye. Instead she stared at the pavement as she willed her to understand where she was coming from. They were so similar, Yang and Ruby, in almost every way – but Ruby would never do something like _this,_ never something so risky, never something that could go so wrong so easily... but something tugged at Yang’s insides, a sense of dread that they had not even scraped the surface of what was happening. All she wanted was to know what was being kept from them, for the murders to stop, by any means necessary. It should have been easy to explain, but…

The silence between them stretched on and all she could do was shrug her shoulders lamely.

“Okay,” Ruby exhaled. Yang blinked with surprise. “I’ve been interrogating Emerald and… she said that Ozpin is to blame for all of this. He’s gone, and I’m worried, Yang. We don’t know anything and people are dying. I just want to hear from someone who knows him better.”

Yang wrapped her arms around her sister tightly. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Mercury shifting awkwardly, looking anywhere else.

“We’re here to ask about the Grimm, too. I’ve found out a few things…”

Yang left out the part where they broke into the casino, and Mercury rolled his eyes as Ruby recounted what Emerald had told her, like he’d heard the speech a thousand times before. That Ozpin ‘didn’t look after former inmates well enough’ was not the most incriminating thing she had ever heard - sure, it sucked that Emerald (and probably Mercury, too, given his sudden disinterest in the conversation) had struggled to return to normality once their respective sentences had ended, but that was hardly Ozpin’s fault alone. Maybe that was how Cinder convinced them to join, but Ozpin seemed to be targeted specifically, and there had to be something more.

And since Ozpin had disappeared, there was only one more person they could trust to ask.

\--

“Hi dad!” Ruby greeted cheerily, hugging the man in his pyjamas who opened the door. The resemblance to his oldest daughter was striking; not quite so much for his youngest, whose dark hair and pale skin must have been inherited from her mother’s side. Even in his surprise at the sudden guests he smiled, nauseatingly friendly, returning the hug in earnest, and when his eyes drifted over to Mercury his expression remained the same, patiently waiting to be introduced.

“This is Ren!” Ruby said - they’d needed a name that Taiyang didn’t know, that would link back to the station if he decided to investigate. Her voice increased a pitch, and Mercury hoped her father was as gullible as she was a bad liar or he’d be in a cell by nightfall. “He works at our department.”

“Nice to meet you, Ren.” Taiyang extended a hand to him – a strangely alarming gesture. When he didn’t immediately take it he felt a sharp jab in his side from Yang’s elbow, prompting him to be _nice,_ like they had told him. He shook his hand. He did not smile.

Taiyang seemed unperturbed. “I wasn’t expecting guests, but… come in,” he said, pulling the door back further. Mercury walked in last. Something about family homes put him on edge.

And this was definitely a family home. The walls were lined with framed photographs of Yang and Ruby, some old, some new: Yang with pigtails, Ruby in dungarees, Ruby pushing Yang on a swing, Yang buried to her chin in sand, Ruby in a woman’s arms, Yang on her father’s shoulders… he realised he was lingering and forced himself onwards. Yang’s eyes when she looked over her shoulder were as piercing as her elbow, warning him to keep up. She probably thought he was staring to find mocking material, and he couldn’t correct her without sounding like a sob story.

He really did not want to be in the house.

\--

Ruby threw herself onto the sofa and stretched out, probably taking up more than she had a right to at her size, but she missed it so _much -_ there were indents in the cushions where she and Yang always used to sit that she fit into perfectly. Yang pushed her legs out of the way and sat down, leaving Mercury to hover around uncomfortably until Ruby relented and scooted up even further to make space.

In a split second she’d had to decide how to react to her sister’s plan for how to spend her suspension from work. She understood, even expected, that Yang would not be able to stand idle while the rest of them continued the investigation – not so much that she would align herself with a criminal. The thing was, Yang was smart: she had to have some sort of plan, and she _had_ found out about Salem through him, so maybe her idea did have some merit… but she couldn’t help but think what would happen if Glynda found out. If _Weiss_ found out.

It wasn’t as if she could undo what Yang had done, however: it was a little late to warn her not to take things into her own hands. All she could do now was try and make sure she didn’t get into any trouble for it... or at least make sure the risk she'd taken was worth it. 

Her dad continued on through the living room to the next, and called out; “Do you want drinks?”

“No, thanks! We won’t be here long,” Ruby responded.

“Thank god,” Mercury murmured just loud enough for the two of them to hear.

“Play nice,” Yang reminded him, equally as quiet. He gave a sardonic smile and said nothing else.

Taiyang returned with drinks anyway, because he was who he was as a person, and he placed them on the coffee table in front of them. That was when the awkward silence hit: the waiting period for one of them to explain why they had dropped round unannounced so late in the evening with such an obviously unwilling stranger.

Yang bit the bullet.

“Did you hear Ozpin’s gone missing?” she asked, almost conversationally. Their dad nodded a little, sadly, rubbed his arm like he was hiding something.

Ruby frowned.

“Your uncle told me. He should be fine – I know it’s hard, but try not to worry too much.”

Mercury scoffed and Taiyang looked at him, furrowing his brow at the sound.

“I know this should be confidential, but it’s important,” Ruby quickly intervened. Taiyang looked back at her. “One of the culprits I’m interviewing mentioned someone named Salem…”

That was a lie, of course: Emerald hadn’t given anything away. Mercury, on the other hand, apparently loved to talk. Yang _would_ end up with the more cooperative one – or maybe she was just better at getting information out of criminals.

But nobody was better than Ruby at getting information out of family.

Immediately it was obvious that they had made the right choice in questioning him: Taiyang’s eyes widened in surprise and he glanced nervously around the room in a way that reminded Ruby of a trapped animal. Taiyang was very expressive, terrible at keeping secrets – she had to get it from somewhere, right?

With a heavy sigh, he said: “Ah, that old name…"

“So you know who she is?” Yang asked, eyebrows raised.

Taiyang nodded. “Assuming you mean the same Salem. Your mother took her in,” he added, looking at Ruby.

“What for?”

“She killed an officer,” Taiyang said. “Before you were born. She was sentenced to life.”

“And where is she now?” Ruby asked.

“Well... I have no idea. She only served a month or so of her sentence before she managed to break out. It doesn’t happen very often – you know that – but she… knew people. We never heard from her again.”

An escaped convict with a hatred for police. That made sense with what they already knew: recruiting people fresh out of prison, appealing to their anger, offering them jobs in line with their convictions. It meant that she had a file somewhere on the system, and with Weiss and Blake’s help, Ruby was pretty sure she could get to it, and then they would have a name and a face – they could give it to the press, have people looking out for her. It was _good_ news.

“We think she might be re-establishing the Grimm,” Yang said, and Taiyang made a strange expression of doubt, almost laughing at the claim.

“That _would_ be strange, since she’s the one who helped put a stop to them.”

Ruby felt the shift on the sofa of three bodies sitting upright all at once and Taiyang looked them over, frowning momentarily, hesitant to continue. The silence pushed him forwards.

“She worked with us. With your mother,” this time he looked at Yang, “and your Uncle Qrow especially.”

Ruby didn’t understand. “Then… why did she kill an officer? What happened?”

“I don’t know. She never gave a reason – she never said anything. One night she and her partner and Raven and Qrow went out on a call, and…” he trailed off. It seemed to Ruby that Taiyang knew the victim, that it was a sensitive subject, but she couldn’t let it go when lives were at stake.

“Her name was Sabrina,” he continued after a moment’s pause. “They were sisters.”

\--

Night fell, and Yang hugged her sister goodbye. Mercury waited on the front lawn not so much to give them space but to give himself a moment to think.

Honestly, he’d never asked questions when Cinder showed up promising him food and lodging for his skills and connections. When he first left prison, he never really questioned anything: he just did. Maybe Emerald _had_ known about who Salem really was - maybe he just hadn’t been listening for that part - but regardless, something about being hired by an ex-cop rubbed him the wrong way. Salem probably thought he was real funny.

Ruby waved goodbye to him like he was any other person, but he hardly registered it. Yang stood next to him, but again, he was too lost in thought to fully acknowledge her.

“Did you know about that?” she asked, nudging him forwards. He began to walk. He shook his head.

“I can’t believe she murdered her own sister…”

“I killed my dad,” Mercury responded, simply. The words slipped out in that lightly casual way they always did, so little thought behind them. They had not even reached the next house before Yang stopped dead in her tracks, staring a hole into the back of his head. He carried on walking.

“Why?” To her credit, it did not take long for her to digest the information. He heard her footsteps pick up again.

_Because he killed my mom. Because he took my legs. Because that didn’t stop him from kicking seven shades of shit out of me._

“He deserved it,” he summarised.

They walked back to the apartment in silence.

\--

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally Ruby wasn't going to find out what Yang was up to until much later on... but I think it's more fun this way, even if it did make this chapter particularly long. 
> 
> Also, on the one hand I hate it when I have to make up names but on the other hand I love it bcos it gives me an opportunity make dumb jokes.


	9. Missing Persons

First thing in the morning and Ruby was ready. She threw on her uniform, dialled Weiss’s number (urged her to leave her bed despite sleepy protests), hopelessly attempted to get through to Blake, gave up, had some cereal, and sped to work. The receptionist on night shift raised an eyebrow at her bubbling energy so early on in the day when the rest of her colleagues were still sluggish from dealing with the VNN fallout, but if he thought it was strange he made no comment. Neither did he ask why she needed to have access to the arrest database before her shift started, for which she was grateful.

Down in the basement, where the temperature was even more suffocating than it was upstairs, Ruby and Weiss sat in front of what was probably the oldest computer in Vale, coffee in hand, ready for answers.

“You didn’t ask for a surname?”

It was a slow start.

“You don’t have to look at me like that!”

Weiss continued to look at her like that anyway, rolled her eyes when Ruby stuck out her lower lip in a pout. She turned her attention to the keyboard, drumming her nails against it as she pondered what to type.

Of course, they had already tried ‘Salem’ and ‘Sabrina’ in the police files, and ‘Salem’ again in the criminal database, but neither returned any significant results. Ruby had sort of hoped they would find a matching surname, or that their first names would be uncommon enough to lead them straight the entries they were looking for - but the database went back all the way to the eighties, and contained every crime from shoplifting to arson.

“Maybe they used false names,” Weiss suggested.

“Ugh, Blake would be so much better at this…”

“Well, Blake seems to have decided to take a poorly timed vacation, so we will just have to figure it out for ourselves.” Weiss shifted in her chair, straightening her back and placing her hands back into perfect typists pose. “Why don’t we try searching for homicides between the years 1995-1999?”

She hit enter and the results filtered in. _So many results -_ pages upon pages of them, even within the set perimeters. Ruby suddenly understood why her dad had been so _busy_ when she was a child, why she spent so many nights alone with Yang - the Grimm must really have had the town running scared.

Ruby could only hope that they could stop it from happening again.

“This… might take a while.”

\--

He awoke to the sound of the door slamming and shot upright, fast enough to hit his head off the windowsill. Only the quiet laughter reminded him where he was, what situation he was in.

In her hands Yang carried two carrier bags full of what smelled distinctly of Chinese food – he realised that it had been over a day since he’d last eaten, but pride wouldn’t allow him to admit to hunger. She’d changed clothes; denim shorts, orange tank top, her hair tied up in a low, loose ponytail. It was definitely one way to distract his stomach.

 _Damn, how long had she been gone?_ He thought, tearing his eyes away from her legs. Even if she had locked the doors and windows, he could easily have broken either and made an escape. _And do what?_ Either get caught by the police or by Salem’s lot. Yang had been right, unfortunately: working with her really _was_ a best case scenario... at least until he could find an alternative.  

“I thought you probably deserved to starve, but then I realised I didn’t want the clean-up.” She began to unpack the food. “Also – you were right. You are my only lead.”

“I don’t have anything else to tell you,” he said, accepting whatever she handed him with careful disinterest. He meant it, too. He honestly had no idea what Salem and Cinder were up to most of the time; he could never bring himself to care enough to ask.

She sat cross legged on the floor in front of him, shrugging her shoulders before shoving a plastic fork full of chicken into her mouth. “I wanna keep an eye on you until we find Salem anyway. Can’t have you running to her and letting her know what we found out.”

He snorted as he dug into his own meal - it was a little late for that. He knew very well that not immediately finding a way to contact her made him dirt in her book, and he had no intention of delivering himself to her new favourite assassin’s doorstep by seeking her out.

“So,” she began, between mouthfuls of rice. “Salem leads the Grimm, but she was also an officer who was supposed to take them down. Which happened first?”

Mercury shrugged.

“She must have secretly been involved with them the whole time. Ruby said she’d call when she found her files at the station… but if my family didn’t manage to catch her after she escaped prison, I don’t know how we’re going to. I guess just seeing a picture of her will help.”

She was thinking out loud. He continued to eat, only barely paying attention.

“Do you think Ozpin is dead?”

It took him a moment to realise that she was waiting for him to answer, and again he shrugged. “She likes her assassins.” He had a fair amount of personal experience with that.

“But Ruby said he cleared out his office. Does that sound like something Salem would order?”

Mercury shook his head – not any time Cinder had asked him to take care of someone, anyway. To him, it just sounded as if Ozpin had realised he was in danger and took off. _Smart man._ Not that it would stop Salem from catching him, of course, or from making an example of him, but a few more days alive without the press on his back had to be better than the alternative.

“I think we need to get Blake.”

“Huh?” Mercury snapped out of his thoughts.

“Blake - my partner. Ruby said she’s hiding away after what happened, but she’s the one who thought Ozpin was keeping secrets in the first place. I figure we can – I can – cheer her up and get her to come help us.”

“Am I meeting _all_ of your friends?”

“Maybe,” Yang teased. “I don’t know where to go next. We have nothing else to do anyway - unless you want to stay here, of course.”

Mercury sighed.  

\--

Mercury murdered his father, so, naturally, she bought him takeout, invited him along to drag her best friend out of her mope cycle, and categorically decided never to bring it up again.

No. No matter how she phrased it, she sounded crazy.

Yang was observant, though; nobody ever seemed to expect it, but she was. She’d noticed his change in behaviour when they visited her dad, how quiet he had become when they left. _He deserved it_ contradicted everything she had come to expect from Mercury, and in her mind, Yang was beginning to paint a disturbing picture. It made her feel… something. Not quite sympathy, definitely not understanding: it was the knowledge that there was something more there than a tool fulfilling Salem’s wishes. Something that she had not anticipated.

Ruby would have tried to get him to open up. She would have insisted that everybody had good inside them, that Mercury just needed a friend to help him realise that, that he could be redeemed.

Yang was not Ruby. So, instead, she bought him takeout, she invited him to find Blake, and decided to never bring it up again.

“This is the place,” she said, coming to a stop outside of yet another block of apartments only slightly nicer than the one they had been staying in.

“They don’t pay you much, huh?”

“Ugh, don’t get me started.”

Mercury let out a dry laugh at that, a little more his normal, asshole self after having slept and eaten, which was infinitely better than the absent, silent person he had become after visiting her childhood home. She was stuck watching him until they found Salem; she might as well make the most of it.

“Blake might not be _excited_ about our arrangement,” Yang explained as the climbed into the elevator. It already had an occupant, and they both looked down at their feet, avoiding her gaze, avoiding recognition. She continued in a low murmur: “So just shut up while I explain. She’ll probably have some questions, but don’t be a smartass.”

He gave her a blank look.

“Okay. Try not to be enough of a smartass to make her want to turn you in the first opportunity she gets,” she conceded.

They reached the sixth floor and headed down the winding corridor that lead to room 617. The number was dull on the door, brassy and scratched; a flier had been pinned beneath it, advertising a festival in the local park one day prior. She knocked twice.

“Blake?”

No answer.

She knocked again.

“Blake! It’s Yang. I have some information I know you’ll be excited to hear,” she sang, grinning when Mercury rolled his eyes and shook his head, almost fondly. He couldn’t hide the smirk if he tried; it was practically a permanent fixture on his face.

Still no answer. She attempted different knocks, different tempting phrases, calling her cell phone and leaving an irritable message, but Blake didn’t budge.

Logically, it seemed likely that Blake had left for the day. The internet connection in the building was terrible; usually Yang would assume Blake had headed for the library, perhaps to research more into the case. But it had been almost two days since she had heard from her directly, and the out of date flier on the door made Yang nervous… she drummed her fingers against the wood, furrowing her brow, thinking.

Blake was probably fine.

“Can you pick locks?” Yang asked anyway. Mercury gave her a look that perfectly communicated how much of an idiot he thought she was, and Yang accepted it; yeah, dumb question. Of course he could.

“Got a card?”

Yang took her debit card from her wallet, handed it over to him. He crouched down and Yang kept watch over the corridor as he slid it through the crack of the door, shifting it up and down, wiggling it from side to side.

After a few failed attempts, the door clicked open.

Inside was a mess. Blake had never been a particularly tidy person - neater than Yang and Ruby, considerably less so than the ever immaculate Weiss – but with just a few steps inside she could see dirty dishes in the sink, clothes strewn across the floor, books fallen from the shelves. The curtains were drawn. It looked a lot like…

Mercury finished her thought out loud.

“… Someone left in a hurry.”

\--

“And… 1998…”

They had stared at the computer screen long enough to make their eyes go square, or so her father would say.

“Are you sure Emerald won’t give you Salem’s surname?” Weiss asked. Her perfect posture had slumped; now she leant on her elbow, chin in the palm of her hand, scrolling mindlessly through the text.

“I mean, I _could_ try again, but… I really don’t think she knows anything about her. She’s way more interested in Cinder.”

“Why would you work for somebody you knew nothing about? It’s ridiculous!”

Ruby rubbed the back of her neck. “Well, we don’t really know much about Ozpin eith-..”

“Got it!”

The report flickered open on the screen. _Salem Crowley. Homicide._ Whoever had filled it out had the worst handwriting on Earth, and that was saying something coming from Ruby. It all made sense when her eyes drifted down to the name of the reporting officer: Summer Rose.

It had been years since Summer had died, but Ruby still remembered it clearly: the day her father had called her and Yang home from school and sat them on the sofa, face tear stricken and voice uneven, the empty sleepless nights that followed. Seeing her name signed by her own hand made a lump rise in her throat that she swallowed, quickly, before it could distract her from her task. Weiss scrolled the screen down just enough to cover it, and Ruby couldn’t tell if she’d done it on purpose or if she was reading twice as fast as her.

She read on.

_On Friday July 18 th, 1998, Salem Crowley was placed under arrest at Junior’s Club, 4 Yellow Street after shooting and killing Officer Sabrina Crowley._

_On the above time and date I was on uniformed duty when I heard the sounds of the gunshots at approximately 01:45. Sabrina had been shot six times in the back and stomach and was unresponsive upon my arrival. Salem moved Sabrina’s body outside of Junior’s Club and held the murder weapon in her hand. She did not resist arrest._

The narrative was shorter than Ruby was used to when it came to homicide. She read it in her mother’s voice, soft and calm. _Six times…_ Ruby tried to imagine stumbling upon such a scene, how she would react seeing one of her colleagues standing over the corpse of a friend. It sent a shiver down her spine.

“Like mother like daughter,” Weiss said, a small smile on her lips. “Summer went straight for her. Just like you did with Cinder.”

Ruby smiled a little, too. It was a comforting thought.

“She isn’t on the employee database… weird. I’ll print this off.”

“I promised I’d tell Yang what we found,” Ruby said, an excuse to return to the first floor and get some air before her shift started. Basement reception sucked.

Weiss gave her a thumbs up and Ruby took the stairs. It felt strange to be chasing down a criminal her mom had caught so many years before, but in a way kind of _right,_ like she was completing her work. It made the case just that little bit more personal.

She hoped her mom would be proud of her.

\--

Yang squared up to him, head craned up to hold his gaze, teeth clenched together. Hands pressed against his chest in a shove that could have been more violent had Yang been calm enough to put any real force behind it, but as things stood it served only as a warning, a vent of frustration.

“Where is she?”

Her voice quivered with rage and fear, and she shoved again like it would push the answers out of him.

“How the hell would I know?” he spat back, grabbing her wrist roughly before she could do it a third time, patience wearing thin. “I’ve been with you the whole time.”

“Was she on a list? Did you know who she was? Did they want her?” the questions came spilling out of her faster than he could answer, and he _really_ had not signed up for this - angry, crying girls were not his forte, and more than any other time with her he wanted to bolt for the door and take his chances, but he also wanted to snap her out of it. Those blatant, open emotions _bothered_ him.

“You found all the other bodies. Why would they take hers?” he rationalised, though his tone remained harsh, ready to slip onto the offensive at any time. “There’s no symbol on the door.”

He could see her consider his words, furrowing her brow and gulping down air as she yanked her arm from him, as she drew back the curtains to look down at the streets beneath. Whatever she was thinking she kept quiet. Her back shook as she attempted to calm down.

He only looked at her for a moment before discomfort won out, and he strolled around the apartment while he waited for her to compose herself, taking in the décor. Blake was clearly not one for spending: everything she owned seemed second hand, taken straight out the window of a charity shop. Her bedroom made her disappearance much clearer: the draws were pulled open, half empty, with odd socks and old t-shirts tossed carelessly to the ground. She had packed up on short notice – very short notice.

It wasn’t impossible that Salem had sent somebody after her and failed. After all, Mercury was her best, and if he wasn’t working for her then her success rate was _obviously_ going to take a nose dive. He had no idea what Blake might have to do with Salem – usually she just sent him after people who’d pissed off the Grimm, and Blake was probably too young to have managed that.

He heard Yang’s voice from the other room, speaking down her cell phone. “Blake, _pick up_. I’m in your apartment. Where are you?”

After a brief silence he heard her ringtone, but only for a second. He turned in time to see her take it out from her pocket - for a moment hope lit her up, until she read the caller ID and drooped once more. She held it to her ear, and somehow the words that came from her mouth were steady, chipper, like maybe she'd had some practice in pretending to be okay.

“Hey, Ruby. What's up?”

\-- 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hate having to name things!! So much!! Fair warning: it might be a week until the next chapter, so it's just as well it's another long one! Hope you enjoyed it!


	10. Alarm Bells

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to clarify, I'm aware Yang and Merc are much more active at the moment. Ruby and Em is a longer wait but it is coming! They are listed as the second pairing for a reason however. Thanks for reading!

Emerald lay on her back. She had done little else for the past two days, except for when she sat instead in the interrogation room where she was subjected to enough senseless questioning and false promises to make her wish she was back in her cell staring at the ceiling anyway. It gave her a lot of time to think.

Mainly, she thought about how long she would be put away for this time. Her previous experience in prison hadn’t been too terrible – just a few months in low security, with regular meals and a television - but imagining what it would be like once she was outed as a murderer made her blood run cold even in the July heat that suffocated her through the tiny caged window of her cell. How many years would it be? Would she ever see outside again?

If only she could have kept running. If only she hadn’t had to check on Cinder. If only she could trust that they had a plan to keep them safe, if she could just quell the throbbing headache taunting that she had only been a disposable pawn all along. How would they get her out of this one? Was anybody even trying?

Maybe she deserved to suffer after what she’d done anyway.

_Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid._

“Hi Emerald!”

_And speaking of stupid…_

She didn’t know why she couldn’t help but respond to Ruby. Perhaps it was because she was younger than all the other officers, more naïve – she wasn’t a threat, not to her, not to Cinder. It could have been because she wanted the satisfaction of showing a good cop how corrupt their institution was.

It was probably because she was lonely. Listening to her inane rambling was better than having to think.

Ruby approached the bars and slid down to the floor, crossing her legs beneath her like a child. The layer of red beneath the black of her hair had faded somewhat ginger over the past few days, and she seemed a little more well rested than she had been, or at the very least better caffeinated – her eyes were more alert, more nauseatingly friendly than before.

The last time they spoken, she told her Ozpin had disappeared. The worry that came off of her then was palpable, but obviously it had been for nothing if her mood had improved so drastically in the day and a half it had taken for her to return. Not that Emerald could talk, really – her mood swings since being captured surprised even her. Without Cinder or Mercury around, she could never be sure what exactly she was supposed to be feeling. 

“Shouldn’t we be in the interrogation room if you’re going to start questioning me?” Emerald asked, pushing the thought of them away. “Or are you keeping this one off the records?”

“There are still cameras here, so _technically_ it wouldn’t be off the record,” Ruby said with a smile, innocent and sweet. “But no. I’m just here to keep you company.

So _that_ had to be a lie. Obviously Ruby’s superiors had realised that she’d only spoken to her and sent her in like a Trojan horse.

“Well. I don’t mind if you have something to tell me, obviously!” She was so _goofy -_ she laughed a little, tapered off into an awkward chuckle at the sight of Emerald’s cold expression. “Actually, I just wanted to tell you that we’re _slowly_ figuring out what happened. In 1998, with Salem. My sister’s going to investigate this bar…”

Emerald didn’t know when Ruby had found out about Salem. Perhaps Cinder had let the name slip, or maybe she was taunting them with her, threatening them… it sounded like something she might do. Emerald didn’t know a thing about her real boss, only that she wanted a lot of people dead, and alright - she was a little curious. Maybe it was time for her to know who she really worked for. She lay on her side to better look at Ruby, to show that she was listening.

Ruby told her all she knew.

\--

_I have a lead. Stop calling, I’ll be in contact soon._

Fuck. She may have overreacted.

She could hear the shower through the thin walls of Mercury’s apartment as she lay on her stomach in bed, frowning at the message that lit up her phone screen.

Her temper cooled to a warm prickle of irritation that flared up whenever a new question arose in her mind, like how could Blake leave without telling them? How could she make her break into her apartment to find out? She knew it was hypocritical given the man stood one paper wall away, her own private lead, but the thought of her investigating without them just made her feel… lonely. A little betrayed. At least Yang was still in the city, still answering calls. And what if Blake was in danger? She couldn’t decide which feeling was worse: the anger or the concern.

The shower trickled to a stop and she still stared at her phone, wondering how best to convey her annoyance in text. She could have told Ruby, but with Pyrrha still in hospital and work to deal with, the last thing she needed was the knowledge that their best friend had decided to leave without notice to chase down violent criminals who hated the police _alone_. In the end she simply relented and text Blake what they’d found. Anything to keep her safe, she thought, bitterly.

She heard the bathroom door open and rolled onto her back, ready to tell Mercury the news.

His head was buried in a towel, scrubbing his hair dry, dressed from the bottom down, though he had neglected to take a t-shirt in with him. She was suddenly very convinced that he had done it on purpose, because immediately she was trapped; look or avert her gaze, he’d have her either way. It actually cleared the thoughts from her mind for a good three seconds as she held her phone in her hand, trying to remember what she had been thinking.

Obviously she knew that, objectively, Mercury was attractive. It might have passed her mind when she bumped into him at the studio, and again when he held her to his chest in the casino, even briefly whenever he smirked. Seeing all those white and brown scars scattered over the bare flesh of his chest, slashes and burns and others she couldn’t even guess at, the jut of his hipbones above his still unbelted jeans, the V of his pelvic muscles disappearing beneath the band of his boxers...

Before he tossed the towel to the side and caught her staring, she remembered her words.

“Blake’s following a lead,” she said, a little too quickly. “I don’t know where. She told me not to call.”

“Told you she wasn’t dead,” he replied, taking a t-shirt from the backpack she had come to realise he kept all of his belongings in.

Yang scowled, finally placing the phone down on the bedside table. Maybe Blake wasn’t kidnapped, and maybe she had overreacted, but she hardly thought she was stupid for it given their situation. “Do you even _have_ any friends to worry about?” she asked, though she felt she already knew the answer.

“Who needs friends with enemies like you?”

He winked. Yang rolled back onto her stomach to squash the feeling there.

\--

“I can’t believe Salem worked here,” Emerald said, eventually, when Ruby paused for breath. It was a strangely honest comment that almost made Ruby forget they were an officer and criminal sat on two sides of a cell - for a moment, Emerald was just another friend unravelling the mystery alongside her.

Emerald probably didn’t have any friends. It felt mean to think, but if nobody had taken her in when she left prison, she had to have been all alone in the world. She hated to think that. Nobody was all bad.

She knew she said she had no questions for Emerald this time, not to do with the case – Ruby believed Emerald that she knew very little about what she had been involved in, especially now she had seen her interest in the tale of Salem and Sabrina. No; she wanted to understand _her_. She wanted to ask why she’d ever gotten involved with Cinder and Salem in the first place, if she’d really felt that was her only option. She wanted to ask if she felt like she was doing the right thing.

So she did.

\--

“I can’t believe it happened at Junior’s Club,” Yang said, brushing out the tangles in her hair in the bathroom mirror. Mercury stood around outside the door impatiently, drumming his fingers against the frame every so often for effect. She ignored him. “I used to go there all the time.”

“’the hell’d you go there for?” Mercury asked. He usually prided himself on not asking questions – at least, not seriously – but he had to let himself have that one; Junior’s Club was a notorious criminal hangout, and even in Vale’s peaceful days he knew that cops stayed away.

“I like beating up bad guys,” she said, and he couldn’t tell if she was joking or not. He could certainly imagine her punching her way through the bar’s inhabitants with a grin plastered on her face.

“Is that why you’re a cop?” She was taking _forever_ to brush through her mane anyway - it wasn’t as if they had much else to talk about.  

Yang hummed a little, glancing at Mercury’s reflection in the mirror.

“A little bit. Also, family and stuff.”

“That’s dumb. You’re a cop ‘cause your parents are?”

“What did your parents do?”

He didn’t answer. _Touché._

\--

Emerald felt her cheeks warm from Ruby’s intrusive line of questioning, somehow hitting every doubt she had had during her time in the cell on the head perfectly, like she could read her mind. Cinder had done the same thing when she found her: turned everything she knew upside down. Forced her to reconsider.

It was exhausting. She didn’t have it in her to do it again. She didn’t _want_ to explain her doubts, to admit that she might have made a mistake, to say she hadn’t been thinking much at all when Cinder took her in – that her attention was so flattering that she never felt the need to ask anything at all.

“What about you?” she asked, seething in a way she knew was unjust. “How are you so sure you’re in the right?”

Half deflection, half genuine: she didn’t get it. She didn’t get how Ruby could be so confident in what she believed in, so self-assured, so….

“I’m not!” she replied. Her voice raised just slightly in a way Emerald had not expected from her, almost offended. “That’s why I’m trying to find out what Salem is up to! You all seem so convinced that the police have done you wrong, and I want to make sure we haven’t. I want to stop people from getting hurt – my friends, my family, civilians. Even you!”

\--

“I’ll be recognised there,” Mercury stated calmly as Yang locked the door behind them.

“Yeah? Me too, I hope,” she grinned before descending the stairs.

\--

Emerald fell into a terrible silence, shaken and blank.

Then came the alarm.

\--

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: this is being uploaded about 5 minutes from the Vatican. Bonding chapter!


	11. Shotblocked

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! Chapter 11 is entirely from Yang's perspective dealing with her and Mercury, and chapter 12 is entirely from Ruby's perspective dealing with her and Emerald. After that it'll go back to normal. Hope you enjoy!

If you didn’t know what you were looking for, you could pass Junior’s Club by without ever knowing what went on inside. The first time Yang visited she thought it was a warehouse: the old brick walls were faded and graffitied, windows shattered and boarded, always smelling vaguely of stale alcohol and burning. Muffled music could be heard distantly, though she had initially found it difficult to place. She’d waited and followed a stranger through a door that half hung off its hinges, and then it all made sense. 

The club was underground.

She’d heard about it from a friend of a friend before she even began police training, and when she joked to Mercury that she liked to go there to beat up bad guys, she was kind of telling the truth – before she could legally chase that sort of thrill she had to do something to get her fix, and Junior’s Club was it every other weekend.

The place was pretty much the same as she remembered. Some of the graffiti was new – a combination of strange caricatures of people she did not recognise and giant white letters lovingly spelling curses across the landscape. The door, however, had been replaced: bright red and cracked down the middle, but in somewhat better shape than the last one. Yang pulled it open and looked over her shoulder and saw Mercury looking over his, taking in his surroundings, almost as if looking for someone.

“Paranoid?” she asked, quietly. He started when she spoke and snapped back to her instantly, causing her to snicker into the back of her hand.

“I said I’d be recognised.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “Believe it or not, not everyone here is my friend.”

Yang descended into the club first. “Aww, am I going to have to protect you?” she teased, and he snorted as he followed after her.

She could feel the music throbbing through the ground as they reached the basement, and the bouncer that awaited them merely looked them up and down and nodded for them to go through. It was not a look of recognition, which she was sure Mercury was glad of – just a quick check, like he was sizing them up for a fight. There were no pat downs, no searches for weapons or drugs. It was _that_ kind of place. At ten in the evening she had expected the club to be empty, but there were still a few eager people spotted around screaming their conversations over the booming music. Yang scanned the occupants for her ‘friend’ – he’d be there somewhere. He kind of owned the place.

“Behind the bar,” came Mercury’s voice down her ear. She followed his gaze and saw him: Junior, leant over the taps mixing a drink for a man already slumped against the surface. Yang nodded, crossed the scarce dancefloor with Mercury trailing behind her, took a seat and leaned forward over the bar, grinning.

“Hey Junior!” she sang. It was good to be back.

He looked her up and down, glanced over Mercury skulking over her shoulder, and heaved a tired sigh.

“Blondie. You’re back,” he said, eventually. “Mercury.”

“Junior,” he responded curtly.

“Just had some guys here asking about you.” He ducked down out of sight, returning moments later with two glasses in each oversized hand. He was a giant of a man, but easily worn down – not nearly as violent as she had expected upon first seeing him, though somewhat impatient, especially whenever she chased away his customers. Without a glance upwards he began to swill them out, busying himself.

“What did they want to know?” Mercury asked in a tone suspiciously casual, and Yang had only known him a few days, so she might have been imagining the sudden tension she felt coming off him in waves behind her.

“Just if I’d seen you around. Any more questions and you’ve got to buy a drink, by the way.”

Mercury pushed no further, and Yang ordered them both her regular. He gave the garishly pink liquid a once over and rolled his eyes, though he took it if only to have something to do with his hands. Something about him was awkward in the presence of others, especially when he had nothing mocking to say – somehow she hadn’t noticed it before.

“Actually, I _do_ have a question.” Yang sipped her drink. “Do you remember the night of July 18th, 1998?”

“That’s a specific night.” He returned to cleaning, kept his eyes on the glass in his hand. “Why, what happened?”

“A cop named Salem shot her sister here.” Straight to the point.

Junior raised a brow. He put the glasses back in their place.

“Salem, huh?” His hands pressed into the bar’s surface and even bent down he towered over the both of them, _unreasonably_ large; between that and his status as an information broker he should have been intimidating, but she always felt as if she had him wrapped around her finger. She kind of liked that.

“Yeah, I remember Salem. Didn’t know she was a cop, though. Her friends, too?”

“Mhm,” Yang hummed, quickly pushing the thought that her _friends_ probably referred to her uncle and mother, that they might have sat on the same stool as her twenty-odd years ago. “Did they come here a lot?”

Junior nodded. “They were pretty quiet. Never ordered much. It was back when my old man owned the place. I wasn’t working that night, but he told me about it when he got home.”

“What happened?”

He sighed again. Often he looked around scouting out other potential customers, but unfortunately for him none came to his rescue. “They were sitting with a group new to the bar, talking all night. A fight broke out, shots were fired, and when the cops got here they took Salem down. Never saw any of them again.”

Yang pursed her lips around her straw, thinking. It sounded relatively consistent with the report Ruby had relayed – but she still couldn’t understand why Salem and Sabrina had been there in the first place. Hypocrisy aside, Junior’s Club was not exactly an ideal police hangout, but perhaps they had been working undercover…

“You didn’t know the other group?” she asked. Junior shook his head. “What were they like? Suspicious?”

Junior fixed her with a withering look. “Everyone in here’s suspicious. They were just regular guys, nothing special.”

“Men? Women?”

“Both.”

“Did anyone see Salem shoot?” Mercury finally joined in the conversation. Yang looked at him curiously, and he shrugged his shoulders at their sudden attention.

“No idea,” Junior admitted after a moment, and then: “You know, I don’t usually give information away for free, so tell me; what are _you_ doing with _him_?”

He gestured between them. Yang grinned.

“Oh, we’re just hanging out. You know.”

“Careful, blondie. He’s dangerous.”

She didn’t need to look at Mercury to know a smirk had slithered onto his face when he spoke. “She knows,” he said, and Junior dropped the issue with little more than a quiet, final sigh.

“Well, I’ve got customers, so…”

“See you around, Junior.”

They downed their drinks.

\--

“Well, that was quicker than expected,” Yang said as they stepped back outside into the glorious smell of a disused parking lot on a warm summer night. “You think that other group were the Grimm?”

She stretched her arms above her head and cracked her fingers, watching Mercury out the corner of her eye. Since leaving the apartment he had seemed somewhat skittish, and she was certain he was on watch for _someone_ – his eyes never rested in one place, constantly scanning their surroundings, enough to make even Yang feel anxious. She just wished she knew _who_.

“’sup?” she asked, nudging him with her shoulder. “Junior doesn’t like you much. What did you do?”

He looked back to her, slowed to a walk by her side.

“Nothing. I used to get jobs here.”

“What kind of jobs?”

He smirked, raised an eyebrow. “You really want to know?”

Yang already knew. It was strange to think that she could have such a casual conversation with a man who was so obviously an assassin, paid to kill indiscriminately, but in practise, so easy. Her first impression of him had been that he was a cocky asshole who thought he was better than he actually was – and she still thought that, but somehow it had grown on her. Maybe it was because people had used those exact words to describe her, too.

She could have sworn they’d been alone, but suddenly Mercury stiffened beside her and her eyes caught those of a man lurking in an alley. She held her breath waiting for him to make a move, and then:

“Nice ass, gorgeous,” he called out and stumbled over a crack in the pavement, almost crashing into the wall beside him.

“I know, right?” Yang shouted back, almost relieved to be objectified, and Mercury actually laughed, honest and open. The man murmured indistinguishably, cursing and whining until he hobbled back into the dark. God, she hated drunk men, but better that than whoever Mercury was so afraid of.

“You get that a lot?” Mercury asked.

“Why, would that surprise you?”

He only had a few inches on her, but it seemed more when he looked down at the top of her head, quiet for a moment before he scoffed and rolled his eyes, not biting.

“Okay, Mercury,” she said doubtfully, carrying on despite herself. “I’ve seen you staring.”

A tiny, too-quiet voice in her head told her that wasn’t a smart thing to say; that was not a can of worms they needed opened, but it was too late – it was already out there. Her tone was light and flirtatious, and she _really had to stop_ , but she felt a little like she was watching herself from outside her own body. She really had no excuse.

It had been a long week?

“Really? Must’ve been when you were staring at me,” he countered, sly grin creeping across his face.

Now it was Yang’s turn to scoff. “Yeah, you wish.”

She felt his hands enclose around her waist, sliding down to her hips when he turned her to face him, leaning down to meet her eyes as he smugly spoke: “I think you like it when I look.”

With his lips so close to hers she could almost taste him, so engrossed in what she knew was coming that what actually happened seemed like a strange daydream.

A bang. A gasp. A splatter of blood across her face.

\--

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shotblocked... get it... like cockblocked... but by a gun.


	12. Reunions

Ruby grimaced and held her hands over her ears as the blearing siren screeched and bounced off the walls of Emerald’s cell, only amplifying in volume the longer it continued.

“What _is_ that?” Emerald spoke through gritted teeth, her own ears shielded by her pillow.

“I think it’s the fire alarm!” She had to raise her voice to be heard, and even then she had to hope Emerald could read her lips through the bars. They hadn’t had a fire drill in months – it took her too long to remember where they were even supposed to assemble, and she would have told Emerald the plan once she finally did, but then she realised she didn’t have a key, didn’t have clearance, didn’t have any way to move her should the fire spread…

After only a few seconds of panic Oobleck shoved open the door and made his way to the lock. In one clean, well-rehearsed movement he handcuffed Emerald and marched them both out to the carpark, unusually silent.

“Is this a drill?” Ruby asked, jogging to keep up with his rapid pace.

“I don’t believe so,” Oobleck responded.

The sun set slowly over the tarmac, and the officers gathered in the shade behind the station. The alarm continued to scream above their voices, but she could see no smoke, could hear no panicked yells – strange, but something had to have set them off.

“Maybe the heat confused the detectors,” Weiss suggested, only half joking, coming to stand beside them.

With how fast they moved, with how suddenly they were all outside, Cinder never even crossed her mind, but it wasn’t long before she was brought out the doors, an officer either side of her, handcuffed with her head held high. Ruby had not seen her since she’d been arrested, and she looked just as menacing for all those days of questioning. Even the sound of the alarm did not seem to faze her: she stared straight ahead, as if she could hear nothing at all.

Ruby saw how Emerald’s back straightened when she came into view, imagined she heard her small gasp of joy at seeing her again. She looked at her like a puppy seeing its master, hopelessly devoted and tugging at her chains to get closer, but Cinder didn’t even look her way. She had to know that Emerald was there.

Ruby quite suddenly felt she understood the relationship between Emerald and Cinder, why Emerald refused to give anything up even if it would help her, and it hurt to watch.

A few minutes more and the sirens ceased, a quiet lulling over the station broken only by the low murmur that passed between the officers. Emerald parted her lips like she was about to call out, and finally, Cinder’s eyes found her. She twisted her lips into a cruel smile.

“Emerald, my dear,” her voice came over the crowd, simultaneously sweet as honey and loud enough to hold everyone’s attention. With all eyes on her, she continued. “I distinctly recall instructing you _not_ to get caught…”

“I’m sorry.” There was a terrible tremor to her voice, and Ruby had to stop herself from holding on to her, from comforting her. It wasn’t her place. They weren’t friends.

With nothing more to say, Cinder turned away again.

“It seems we have a faulty alarm!” Port called out. “Nothing to worry about – everything’s fine. Make your way back inside in a calm and orderly fashion...”

\--

The despair that washed over Emerald was dreadful – a silent, festering thing that she fought to keep off of her face but which flickered there anyway whenever she thought that Ruby had turned her back.

“I’ll stay with her a while,” Ruby said. To see her adoration of Cinder so directly contrasted with Cinder’s dreadful disdain was too much - she couldn’t leave Emerald to sit alone after that, no matter what she had done to be alone in the first place. Oobleck inspected them curiously, but with a small nod he left them, alone in the cells once more.

“She was caught too,” Ruby said the moment the door clicked closed. Cinder could hardly be mad at Emerald for failing in the same way that she had – it wasn’t fair.

Emerald laughed dryly, bitterly. “She was meant to be.”

Ruby tensed.

“What do you mean?”

Emerald remained standing, arms folded across her chest and hands gripped on either side of her own waist, hugging herself for comfort. Ruby hated it – hated not knowing what to do, hated seeing something she couldn’t fix. Cinder’s words had struck Emerald to her core. Just one sentence.

“I don’t know,” Emerald said, quietly, miserably. She no longer seemed to care what she said, who she spoke to. Her words were distant, her mind elsewhere, her worst fears confirmed. “I don’t know why. She said she’d be arrested, told us not to worry. We weren’t - _I_ wasn’t supposed to be. She’s so mad…” her voice tapered off at the end, soft and broken.

“Why would she want to be arrested?” Ruby asked, suddenly afraid.

Was all of this just part of Salem and Cinder’s plan?

“I don’t know! She never told us anything until we needed to know. I think I’ve ruined it.”

Only then did Emerald sit down, straight on the tiled floor, knees pressed deep into her chest. Fear and sadness came off of her in waves, surprisingly contagious. It was the first confession she had given, and they hadn’t even been in the interrogation room, and what could she even do with it without knowing why Cinder wanted to be in the station in the first place?

Were they in danger?

“Are you okay, Em?” she asked. The nickname slipped easily off of her tongue, but Emerald made no comment: she hid her face in her knees, silent once more.

“I need to go. I think Cinder might be planning to hurt more people.”

No response. Ruby took one last look at Emerald curled up on the floor like a child and slid through the door.

\--

She knocked on the door too Ozpin’s office over and over, praying to whoever the hell was out there that Glynda had yet to leave.

“Oh, _there_ you are.” Weiss must have heard the noise and come running. “I should have known you wouldn’t have gone home yet - that would suggest you actually _wanted_ to have a decent sleeping schedule.”

“Cinder _wants_ to be here,” she explained hurriedly. “Emerald said she was supposed to be caught.”

Weiss blinked, shoulders sinking. “Well, that’s not good.”

“No,” Ruby agreed. “I need to tell-..”

The door disappeared from beneath her pounding fists.

“You do know you only need to knock once, Officer Rose,” Glynda said, cool and collected.

“I know!” Ruby said, and then: “I know,” she repeated, a little calmer, a little quieter. “I spoke to Emerald. It was part of Cinder’s plan to be caught. I don’t know what it means. What if she’s going to hurt another officer?"

“I can’t see how she would do that,” Glynda said after a moment of quiet consideration. “She has no access to weapons, and she is never interrogated by less than two officers at a time. She might be powerful, but I doubt-..”

“The fire alarm,” Weiss said, suddenly. Ruby and Glynda looked to her at once. “Someone could have given her something outside-..”

“Or sneaked in and hidden something for her to find,” Ruby finished, eyes locked on Glynda’s. Her well maintained expression of calm crumpled just slightly and she furrowed her brow, scowling.

“Is anybody interrogating her now?”

“No,” Glynda said. “But I think, perhaps, we should.”

More than ever nervousness bubbled in Ruby’s stomach, tensing in her throat.

Cinder couldn’t do anything if they got down to her first. It would be fine.

Glynda stepped into the room, gun drawn.

Blood, a great puddle of it, seeped into the cracks of the tiles, soaked into the sheets of the thin, springy mattress in the corner of the cell. Half on top of it Cinder lay draped like a rag doll, skin ashen and face buried in the sheets. Dead.

\--


	13. Pain and Misery

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last two chapters were mean so I'll upload this one an entire day early.

For a second she couldn’t be sure which of them had been shot, only that there was blood on her top and her face and on Mercury, and they needed to _move_ before the shooter made a second attempt at taking them down. Her fingers locked around his and she ran, pulling him along with her as he let out a sharp shout of pain - another _bang_ sounded behind them and missed, bullet embedding itself in the wall beside her. She had nothing to fight back with, no weapons, no real knowledge of the area, and every building was boarded up or blocked off and she couldn’t _think._

An alley. She didn’t dare look over her shoulder, but whoever was shooting them had to be far enough away if they had missed, if she couldn’t hear the footsteps, but that might have been the blood pounding in her head cancelling out the sound. Together they stumbled into the dark, out of reach from the street lights.

“The drunk guy,” Mercury mumbled, back slumped against the wall. Now she could clearly see which of them had been shot: the blood pooled out of him, soaking his t-shirt. “He’s Grimm.”

“Move out of sight,” Yang whispered. Mercury looked as though he might ignore her instruction but the pain flickered over his face and he only slid further down, crouched on the ground, held his arm across his chest as he cursed through gritted teeth. The sound of her breath was terribly audible in the empty street, and she clamped her mouth shut, bit down on her lip, tried to keep quiet. Footsteps finally rang out, clicking against the pavement slowly, patiently. Yang breathed through her nose, waiting for them to be close enough…

She saw his shadow approach and Mercury kicked out his leg before she could act, throwing the man off balance – Yang sprang out from the alley, tackling him the rest of the way down. A third shot echoed out but went wide as Yang grabbed his wrist, desperately attempting to prise the gun from his grasp. He punched her in the jaw; her teeth snapped shut on the inside of her cheek and she would have yelped in pain if the adrenaline had not pumped through her veins, but she suffered through it and grabbed the man’s hair, slamming his head into the ground _hard._

His grip on the gun loosened and she wrestled it from his hands until she could press it to his forehead. In her own throat she could taste blood, and for a moment she could have pulled the trigger, and that thought caused her to hesitate long enough for the man to knee her in the stomach until she rolled off of him, gasping. He fled down the dimly lit street, and instinct instructed her to chase after him, to apprehend him, but…

“Mercury,” Yang said when she could think to breathe again. She fell to her knees beside him, gun still held tightly in her hand.

“Yeah?” he responded, though his teeth were clenched, and obviously he was trying to hide the pain – she took her phone from her pocket, used it as a light to find the injury, but there was blood everywhere and it was so dark outside. “My shoulder,” he said, helpful for once in his life.

It wasn’t too bad, she thought, not for the amount of blood it had produced – it could have been so much worse, and that thought chased the adrenaline away so that she had to rest her forehead on the wall over Mercury’s shoulder, mind fading blank, close enough to feel nothing but his heart beating in his chest.

Jesus. Either one of them could have died.

“Still think I’m paranoid?” he asked. She could hear the grin on his lips. “That was hot, by the way. My hero,” he teased.

She let out a breathless laugh. If he could still crack jokes…

“We need to get you to hospital,” she said, finally pushing herself up again.

“No.”

“What do you mean, ‘no’?” Yang asked. “You’ve been _shot._ ”

“I go to the hospital, the cops find me, the Grimm find me-..“

Yang pulled him up to his feet, causing him to gasp out once again, fingers digging into her arm to stop himself from yelping.

“There isn’t an alternative,” she insisted.

“I’m not going.”

“I will _carry_ you there, Mercury.”

He glared at her, though the power of his gaze was lessened somewhat when he blinked heavily, fighting to keep himself from crying out again. Yang had never seen someone shot before – she’d been trained for the possibility, but with their surroundings, with all they had brought with them, no temporary aid sprang to mind. She could take him back to Junior’s, but somebody had been there looking for him – Junior might have even sent him after them. It wasn’t safe.

She searched through her contact list.

“Yang, I’m not fucking-..”

“I’m calling Ruby to pick us up,” she said. “I’m not losing my lead, okay?”

Mercury closed his mouth.

\--

Cinder was dead.

Cinder was dead, and her body was on a stretcher, and her throat was slit, and sirens bleared on the streets outside. It didn’t matter who Cinder was or what she had done – nobody deserved to be murdered, especially not under police supervision. She should have been safe.

The security footage showed enough to let them know Weiss’s suspicions had been correct: during the fire alarm, while they stood outside, chatting and complaining about the noise and the heat, a woman dressed in a black hoodie had made her way inside. Where she had hid they could not determine: the woman had shattered every camera along her way, with the sort of knowledge that had to come from the inside.

Nobody had seen her leave. They searched the building from the basement up, but there were no signs of unauthorised presence. No matter how she tried, she could not disqualify an officer committing the murder. Somebody who knew were the cameras were, her cell, the keys. It could have been one of her friends, and it terrified her.

How was she going to tell Emerald?

She felt sick.

“Salem would have known,” Weiss told her, quietly. “It might just have been luck that they found Cinder before Emerald. You sitting with her might have saved her life.”

That wouldn’t make Emerald feel any better, Ruby thought. Seeing how she had reacted to Cinder made her think that perhaps Emerald would have rather had the alternative.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket, but she hardly registered it. She definitely did not answer it. Outside she could hear voices, the low murmur of reporters –  how had they heard so quickly? Tomorrow’s news would be dreadful. _Prisoner’s throat slit behind bars – police mystified._ Seven murders in three weeks. Seven assassinations.

“Why would Salem kill her?” Ruby asked.

“Maybe she was worried she’d give something away?”

But that didn’t sit right with Ruby. Cinder wasn’t the sort to give things away – surely everybody had to know that, especially her employer. Maybe something had gone wrong elsewhere.

Or maybe Cinder was always meant to be killed.

\--

Bullet wounds were the worst, and Mercury had enough experience with injuries to state that categorically. Pain burned through his shoulder liked a branding iron throbbing and throbbing and _throbbing,_ only intensifying the longer the adrenaline had to wear off. He had been through worse, but oddly that thought did nothing in the way of soothing the furious ache spreading down his arm, rendering it immobile.

Waves of exhaustion came over him, making it more and more difficult to stop himself from groaning and whining. Yang held her phone to her ear, cursing irritably under her breath each time it went to voicemail. He could feel her eyes on him even when he closed his, concerned in a way that was both unusual and kind of flattering to him.

“They’re not answering – they must be on a shift.” She tugged his uninjured arm over her shoulder, so he must have been slumping again – a proud part of him wanted to snatch it back, tell her he could walk fine, but he was dragging his feet and it was nice to not have to focus on standing upright, so he let her pull him along. “I’m going to get someone to drive us to the hospital.”

“Don’t-..”

“ _Wait_ until I’ve finished,” Yang interrupted sharply. She had to pause to spit blood on the floor, and in the street lights he could see the skin of her jaw darkening in a bruise. “We’ll say you’re a witness and they’ll leave you alone. You don’t have to stay long enough for them to ask questions, and you look like you could do with the painkillers.”

Well. He couldn’t deny that. The pain was enough to make even him agreeable, apparently – or maybe he just trusted Yang. 

Weird.

Yang searched through the contacts in her phone and finally connected.

“Hey, Nora! Glad you’re up. So there’s this thing…”

\--

“She is remanded in custody, Ms Rose. There is nothing I can do about it.”

“She could be in danger here!”

“What happened to Cinder will _not_ happen again.”

“How can you be so sure?”

Glynda’s nails tapped against her desk in a rhythm of perfect irritation; her cool, collected mask had slipped, and now, for once, she seemed agitated and uncertain. Ruby had known Glynda her entire life – she was not an unreasonable person, certainly not a stupid one. She had to understand what was happening.

And Emerald… Emerald was a victim, there was no doubt in Ruby’s mind. Cinder had manipulated her and lied to her and taken advantage of her, and she still had to pay for her crimes - of course she did - but Ruby would not rest until she knew Emerald would be okay, until she knew she’d be given a fair chance to try again, to make up for her mistakes. Not like before. Right now, the only way she could be sure of that was if Glynda would agree and put her into hiding - if she would give her protection.

Ozpin should have been with them. He should have been the one making these decisions. Ruby felt an unfamiliar pang of anger towards the old chief of police, one that she knew was unfair - he could be dead, she remembered, but if he had only told them what the hell was going on, maybe they would never have been in their situation in the first place…

With a defeated sigh Glynda rose from her chair and turned her back on her. “I will discuss it with the rest of the staff tomorrow morning. In the meantime, Ms Sustrai will be fine: she will have an armed guard from the moment she leaves the interrogation room.”

Ruby’s heart beat in her throat.

“The interrogation room? Has somebody already told her about-..”

“ _Yes,_ Ruby,” Glynda said, voice stern. “Oobleck is downstairs speaking with her now.”

\--

_No foster home could contain her, they came to find, when they caught her at midnight under a bridge in her mint and white striped pyjamas._

_No one would take her in, they soon realised, when she scratched the skin from her foster-father’s face._

_No place would hire her, she eventually discovered, when she’d spent every school day hiding out in the tall grass of the disused park._

_Nobody would love her, she quickly learned, when the strangers in the street kicked her bag of change down the gutter and laughed._

_All she ever did was run through beeping scanners and sprint from the police. Hide from social services and eat from the trash. When they finally found her they put her away for six months and for the first time she had nowhere to flee to, but she also had set meals and bedtimes and a room to herself. When it came to an end emptiness bubbled up and threatened to swallow her whole._

_When she met Cinder it was like clouds clearing and sun shining. It was understanding and validation. It was love and it was family and it was everything she’d never had._

_She would do anything for Cinder._

_\--_

Cinder was dead.

Cinder was dead.

Cinder was dead.

Words meant nothing, especially not those from an officer she didn’t even know, didn’t trust. No way could it be true – Cinder was far too powerful, far too in control, to ever let anyone best her…  

… But even as she thought it she knew she was lying to herself. She felt it in her gut – a horrible fear, a sudden drop, an emptiness. Why would he lie? What would he have to gain? To see her reaction? Was he that sick?

Oobleck spoke, and Emerald couldn’t hear anything past _Cinder._

Ruby burst into the room, and Emerald couldn’t think anything past _Cinder._

Arms wrapped around her in the first hug she could remember, and Emerald could only think it wasn’t Cinder.

She accepted it anyway, pressed her head into Ruby’s shoulder, and sobbed.

\--


	14. Revelations

Through the glass Yang watched as the x-ray lights flickered over Mercury’s body, laid impatiently still on the hard hospital bed. He looked like shit, but when they dressed the wound nobody seemed worried, and the painkillers they administered were obviously doing the trick. The doctor beside her turned dials and checked the monitor, and murmured a quiet _be right back_ as he left the room.

“Thanks, Nora,” Yang said, for what was probably the tenth time that evening.

“Hey, no problem!” she replied, giving her arm a light punch. “I mean, this is crazy, but it’s also kind of awesome. You’re a maverick cop who doesn’t play by the rules.”

Yang laughed and shook her head. “You’re the only one with a badge, now.”

It was almost funny how easy it was to stop doctors from asking questions with that little piece of metal, the universal sign for _just do your job and leave the rest for us._ If Yang had still been on the force she’d never have needed to get Nora involved, but as things stood she was one of the only people she knew who wouldn’t think that she’d actually lost her mind for working with a criminal. Actually, Nora probably wished she’d thought of it first.

She caught her reflection in the glass and suppressed a grimace. A nasty bruise had begun to form across her jaw, and even though she had washed the blood from her face her clothes were still coated in it, dark and crisp now that it had dried. To her credit, she did not shudder when she remembered how close the bullets had come to hitting her - she only closed her eyes for a moment and tried not to let the memory show on her face.

“He was there when Pyrrha got shot, huh?” Nora asked as she peered over at Mercury fidgeting on the other side of the window. Her tone made Yang’s blood turn cold, made guilt pool in her stomach.

“He… caused the distraction,” she admitted.

Out the corner of her eye she saw Nora nod once.

“How is Pyrrha, anyway?” Yang asked, tentatively.

“Awake!” Nora’s enthusiasm returned as suddenly as it had diminished. “She’s so high – they’re pumping so many drugs into her. She’s allowed visitors, though. I’ll keep an eye on your _friend_ if you want to go talk to her later.”

“Yeah,” Yang said. “I’d like that.” The guilt ebbed away, just a little, enough to stop her from breaking into a panic, abating the need to question herself over and over again for just a little while longer.

With that said the doctor returned, holding the scans.

“Good news,” he said with a professional smile. “His shoulder’s clean. I’d like to keep him overnight for observation, but you can have him back for questioning in the morning.”

“We’ll need to stay with him.”

“That’s not a problem. We’ll get him to a free room within the hour.”

Yang gave a nod, relief washing over her. She was about to follow after the doctor when her phone buzzed in her pocket.

“ _Finally._ Hold on, it’s Ruby. I’ll be through in a sec.”

\--

Her tears subsided and she turned to stone, silent and expressionless and still in her cell, cold and empty despite the heat that rolled over them in waves even at night. It was impossible not to see the hurt that radiated from her – even more so to cure it.

Ruby put her phone away. Emerald’s information might have come a little too late, but she had given it freely nonetheless – she had to confess that she knew where Mercury was, to help her see that Salem was to blame, not the police. The only problem was keeping that information from the rest of the station - the last thing they needed was for Yang to be implicated too.

“She didn’t eat dinner. I thought we should try again now.”

Coco raised an eyebrow behind her sunglasses at the bag in Ruby’s hand, her feet perched casually on the desk’s surface. After a careful moment’s thought she shrugged and tossed the keys into Ruby’s clumsy fingers – she juggled them for a moment before she managed to get a proper hold of them, and grinned a nervous grin. Once inside she unloaded the plastic bag of sandwiches and potato chips. Emerald never even looked at them; she only sat there, unresponsive.

“I didn’t know what flavour you like, so I kind of got a lot,” Ruby said, sheepishly. Up close she could see that Emerald’s eyes were glassy with tears and exhaustion. Still she said nothing.

“Come on, Em,” she pushed. “You have to eat something.”

She crossed the cell to wrap her arms around her again. The first time it had been an accident, a natural reaction, and nobody had chastised her like she had expected; she had been through too much to _not_ hug her. This time, without that urgency behind it, she realised how soft and warm Emerald’s skin was, how she smelt vaguely of coconuts even with how long she’d spent in the cell.

She shook the thought from her head.  

“Mercury’s in hospital,” she said in a whisper down her ear. She felt Emerald shift, a slow de-petrification taking place. “Salem sent someone after him too.”

She didn’t seem to be able to comprehend the words immediately, and Ruby couldn’t see her face to guess how she took the information with it pressed into her shoulder. Cautiously Emerald hugged her back, just enough so that she could lift her head and murmur without being seen. “Is he okay?”

Ruby nodded once and let go.

“Please just eat something, okay?” she said, taking a few steps back. Emerald studied her with careful confusion, but blessedly did not push her any further. “I have to check in on my sister, but I’ll be back in a few hours. Coco will watch out for you. She’s one of our best!”

“ _The_ best,” Coco called from across the room, and she looked over the top of her sunglasses and flashed a grin.

Emerald watched her as she left – she could feel it on the back of her neck. Before she closed the door she heard a plastic bag rustle, and she smiled.

\--

_Childhood was swings and cartoons and strange substances on the kitchen counter. Empty bottles of beer and unlocked doors and guns in open draws. Blood in the sink and screaming from the living room. A drunken drive into an old oak tree._

_In hospital they told him he’d never walk again. A week later they told him his mom would never wake again. He stopped believing in karma. How could his father survive without a scratch while the rest of them suffered?_

_His teenage years were rehab and stumbling and reeling from blows. Insults and stove burns and bruises head to toe. Skipping school and skipping meals and hiding in the basement. A gun in an open draw and eight shots to the chest._

_In court they asked him why he never reported the abuse. A week later they said his father spent all that money on his nice new legs – why would he try to break him after fixing him?_

_He stopped believing in people._

_Prison was square meals and square rooms and square courtyards. Spring beds and cold and noise. Broken noses and bruised knuckles and blood in his mouth. Empty thoughts he would never remember. Existing._

_In Junior’s Club she asked if he was anything like his father. Mercury didn’t know what he was like, but he supposed Cinder knew best._

\--

“Cinder’s dead.”

From the hospital bed Mercury tilted his head, not quite registering what Yang had said. Perhaps it was the painkillers or the antibiotics, but he understood the words apart - he just couldn’t understand how those words could apply to one another, especially not when Cinder had been locked in a cell, safe and sound, as the plan dictated.

“Are you okay?”

He blinked his eyes too slowly in the too-bright room and nodded. That action alone made him dizzy, so he stopped and rested back against the head board. Yang’s hand lay on the mattress not far from his bandaged arm and shoulder held up in a sling, and he stared at that for a moment, at the blood under her nails.

“You seem pretty out of it.”

She punctuated her words with a snicker, fond and sweet. He looked at her face and felt something.

“Nora’s going to sit with you when Ruby gets here. We’re going to check on Pyrrha. Okay?”

He lay back on the bed, careful with his arm though he could hardly feel the pain. His head hit the pillow and he was gone.

\--   

“Jeez, what are they giving him?” Nora asked. She sat in the chair beside Mercury’s bed and cracked her knuckles thoughtlessly, making herself comfortable.

“I don’t know. At least he’s stopped whining,” Yang replied. His breath was soft and even as he slept – it was an odd sight to see him quiet and peaceful, but not entirely unpleasant.

“He’s kind of cute.”

Yang’s attention snapped back to her colleague and friend fast enough to give her whiplash. Nora grinned.

“Oh?”

“Stop,” Yang said, rolling her eyes. “That’s not a match you should try and make.”

“Yeah. You’re probably right,” Nora agreed. “Besides, it’d be super annoying dating someone _just_ as they got put away for life, you know?”

Yang changed the subject. “Ruby and Weiss shouldn’t be long,” she said, ignoring the knot tightening her stomach.

The news they’d given her was enough to make her glad she’d been suspended – everything was such a _mess,_ and at least it wasn’t her job to fill in the paperwork anymore. If anything it only cemented in her mind that she had made the right decision in chasing down Mercury. Things back at the station were only getting worse – had they made any progress at all?

She rubbed her jaw absently. Had she?

\--

“Yang!” Ruby exclaimed as soon as she caught sight of her sister, shock and worry bubbling over.

“It’s not mine,” Yang replied quickly when she looked at the blood on her vest, accepting her running hug with little more than a backwards stumble. At least she had some strength in her – more than Ruby had expected from her appearance, coated in blood, jaw swollen. She clung tightly around her neck.

“You’re a mess,” Weiss said, reaching Yang at a more acceptable pace. Once Ruby let go, Weiss dusted off Yang’s shoulders and tutted at the state of her hair. “And what you’re doing is crazy.”

“I know.”

Weiss had _not_ been the most understanding about the whole situation, but on the car journey over Ruby had just about managed to convince her to spare Yang’s life for at least a few days and give her plan a chance. It felt weird keeping it from her in the first place; the time for secrets between them had passed now that it was clear Salem’s plan was not over.

But before continuing on after her, they had to check in on Pyrrha.

Her skin was pale and sunken; bags hung beneath her eyes, despite having slept heavily for the past few days. Her bright red hair spayed out around her head, and it was the first time Ruby had ever seen it untied, unkempt. It looked as if she had lost weight, and she probably had in blood alone – an IV drip protruded from her hand, rehydrating her. Put simply, Pyrrha looked exactly as if she had been shot twice in the chest, but when she smiled just a little of the awfulness of her condition eased away.

“Hello again,” she said. At her side, Jaune lifted his head up from the bedside table. He looked almost as bad as Pyrrha herself, and Ruby was suddenly sure he hadn’t left her side since he’d entered the ambulance beside her.

“Can I hug you?” Ruby asked, itching to move forwards. She breathed a light laugh and nodded, and carefully Ruby wrapped her arms around her shoulders - she felt so fragile and small, even though she was almost a foot taller than Ruby and could probably lift five times her weight. It made sense - they were so sure they would lose her, and Ruby couldn’t put into words how glad she was that they hadn’t.

Yang grinned easily. “How’s hospital life treating you?”

Ruby smiled the entire time Pyrrha spoke. It almost felt like if Pyrrha was okay, then everything would be fine. Admittedly it was a silly way of thinking, but she couldn’t help it – when Pyrrha was shot, everything started falling apart, and they may have been no closer to discovering Salem’s true motives, but it was impossible to feel as if it had all been for nothing with Pyrrha back.

During a lull in the conversation Yang said her goodbyes and left, the blood and dirt on her clothes finally enough of a nuisance for her to go home and change, and then Jaune moved to get coffee, with Weiss following soon after. Soon enough, it was just Ruby and Pyrrha and the quiet beeping of machinery. 

“Is Ozpin alright?” she asked, quietly.

Ruby rubbed the back of her neck. “He’s missing… it looks like he ran off after you were attacked.”

“Ran off?” Pyrrha’s brow furrowed in confusion. “Why would he do that?”

“Well, on the broadcast Cinder mentioned Ozpin’s name… we think he’s their main target.”

She fell silent, frowning at her sheets. Something hung in the air, tense and uncomfortable; words that Pyrrha could not verbalise.

“That doesn’t make any sense. He wouldn’t give up like that,” she said, reminding Ruby so much of her own optimism a few days prior. Now it was strange to hear someone speak positively of him. “He was beginning to create a unit within the police force…”

Ruby blinked. “What?”

With a pitiful groan Pyrrha pushed herself up further, and Ruby’s hands shot out to help her. Sat a little straighter, she looked Ruby in the eye – she could see the thoughts swimming there, the debate raging behind them over how much she should say. Eventually, with a wrinkle of her nose, Pyrrha decided. 

“Ozpin was unhappy with how the homicides were being dealt with. He decided that he wanted a sub-unit of officers to deal with it – officers who didn’t need to report everything, who could work undercover without worrying about regulations, almost without rules. He asked me if I would help… he told me that Salem had sent-..”

“You know about Salem?” Ruby asked, flabbergasted.

“… Yes. I know that she was a part of the previous attempt at creating a similar unit, to fight the Grimm the last time they appeared. Ozpin never told me what happened, exactly, only that he made a mistake in hiring her. She ended up in prison, and once the Grimm were dealt with, he disbanded the unit altogether.”

Ruby stared at her feet. A sub-unit of officers… Salem and Sabrina… and her Uncle Qrow? Yang’s mom, Raven? Were they a part of it too? She didn’t know what to think. The way Pyrrha said it made it sound almost sensible – if they couldn’t solve the crime above the law, then hand selecting trustworthy officers who could work without restraints to take them in… in theory, it was the exact same thing Yang was doing, but it was so _illegal._ The thought of Ozpin actually authorising such a thing seemed… off.

How had it failed before? How did it end with Salem shooting Sabrina?

Is that why Salem was after Ozpin?

She had so many questions, but the nurse arrived to give Pyrrha her medication, and once that was done she was far too exhausted to answer her. She probably had no idea anyway.

Ruby left Pyrrha to rest.

\--

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the comments and kudos everyone! It means a lot <3


	15. Fight and Flight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The RWBY4 trailer came out today and I'm hyped so here's another early chapter. I want to get this finished before RWBY4 comes out anyway so... (no promises though! These upcoming chapters are the least edited and need some major tweaking haha)

Warm water washed over her and swirled light brown around the drain, carrying the final remnants of Mercury’s blood away. She’d lost track of how long she’d stood there with the drum of the shower on her head staring at the white tiles beneath her, and when she finally dragged herself out she was not entirely surprised to find it had been well over an hour since she’d returned home.

Well, she’d had a lot to think about.

She dried herself off and sat on her bed. It felt like months since she had last slept there and lying down had never been more tempting, so she indulged herself – just for a few minutes. Nora would be fine watching over Mercury anyway, and if she needed a break, Ruby and Weiss were still around to take over. They wouldn’t mind.

\--

“I need to see how Emerald’s doing.”

“What, and leave me here with _him?_ ”

“I’m not thrilled either,” Mercury said, though he lacked his usual bite laid out on his back so heavily medicated. Weiss narrowed her eyes at him.

“Somebody needs to keep an eye on him… for his own good and ours.”

Weiss exhaled through her nose and rolled her eyes to the ceiling but relented, and Mercury couldn’t exactly go anywhere; their expressions made it perfectly clear that neither were happy about the arrangement but, well, Nora had a shift at the station, and nobody else knew about him, so they didn’t really have any other options until Yang returned - they would just have to suck it up and deal with it.

Ruby hadn’t told either of them about what Pyrrha had said, though it never left her thoughts. She’d made a vow of honesty to herself, but she still needed time to think – after all, Yang always reacted badly when her mother came up. Not that she blamed her. She needed to understand the situation better herself, and then maybe find a way to tell Yang that didn’t immediately implicate their closest family in… whatever it was that had lead them to where they were today, that had turned Salem into what she was, that had been hidden from all of them…

She wondered if her dad knew.

On the journey back to the station, it was all she could think about.

\--

They secured the tag around her ankle, tight enough to be just a little uncomfortable. It was an ugly thing, so blatant in her cropped pants; people would see it and _know,_ and the thought was so humiliating. She may have been getting out, but she definitely wasn’t free.

At least she’d see outside again before she was put away forever.

“There are some terms and conditions to your temporary release,” Glynda said. “You must report in at the end of each day, and under no circumstance are you to leave the country. Make sure you are back home by eight each night-..”

“I don’t have a home,” Emerald replied, bluntly. Her tongue still felt heavy in her mouth; grief weighed her down.

Glynda paused, hands knotted together on the desk separating them. “I am aware of your situation. You will either be given a room at the hostel or, alternatively, Officer Rose has offered to have you at her apartment until you are called to court.”

She blinked twice, slowly resurfacing from her trance. Surely she’d misheard – Ruby was friendly, overly so, but nobody would make such an offer, especially not knowing full well that Emerald could be an assassination target. Especially not knowing she deserved to be. But Glynda looked at her expectantly, awaiting something – and did she actually have to decide? Could she really stomach Ruby for days on end? She’d be safer with her than at a hostel, probably, with somebody who knew what to look out for, with privacy and security, and she felt as if that should make the answer clear, but she wasn’t even sure if she _wanted_ to be safe. Not without Cinder.

“It is an unusual offer, however given the circumstances, and…”

The office door swung open.

“Sorry!” Ruby said, panting as she made her way through. “Traffic. Did you make a decision? Are you ready to go?”

She blinked again. Since Cinder died life had been so difficult to process, and everything that had happened since she woke up that morning seemed more like a dream than anything else. A sheepish grin glowed on Ruby’s face, however, and slowly Emerald realised that she _was_ awake, and she _did_ have to decide. Ruby, or…

“Ruby,” she said. “Um. I’ll stay with Officer Rose.”

\--

“I’m getting coffee.” Weiss’s voice came suddenly, interrupting the report playing on the tiny television above his bed. In detail he heard of Cinder’s death, of the police incompetence. Salem must have been pleased. “Do you want any?”

Mercury shrugged his shoulders, which was apparently enough for him to earn a huff from the indignant little girl – she pushed off the chair and exited the room.

He looked outside. The sun had begun to set.

Two or three minutes passed and he climbed out of bed.

\--

Cream walls plastered with video game posters, wooden floorboards hidden beneath clutter and clothes and half empty mugs, a coffee table with piles and piles of papers stacked inches high; Ruby’s apartment was both childish and adult, somehow describing her perfectly.

Emerald had stayed at many places in her life. She’d been thrown into a new foster home every month as a kid, sometimes miles away, sometimes only blocks. She’d seen every type of house there was, and so she could safely say that she liked Ruby’s. It was small and cosy and had a balcony that overlooked the courtyard, so she could hardly hear the streets below them. The quiet would be well appreciated in her last days out of prison; once she was there, she would never have peace again.

“I didn’t have time to clean it before you got here,” she apologised, dumping some comics off her sofa and onto the floor. She gestured for her to sit, and she did. “I was at hospital with Mercury.”

“I guess he pulled through?” Even though he couldn’t hear her, she felt the need to play down the concern she felt for her partner. They may not have always gotten along, but out of everyone he was the closest thing to a friend she’d ever had – pity they were both too stubborn to admit it.

“Yeah! It was only his shoulder, and the doctors said the bullet passed straight through. Yang managed to get him there before he lost too much blood.”

“Your sister?”

With a little sigh and grimace Ruby explained, and _of course_ Mercury would find himself a deal like that while she was trapped at the station, the lucky asshole, but she couldn’t be too angry; Emerald would never have given up anything if she were in his situation, and probably would have been taken in anyway. At least he had someone watching his back from Salem – she just found it difficult to imagine the type of person who’d voluntarily put up with him.

“Anyway, you can sleep in my bed and I’ll have the sof-..”

“I can’t do that,” Emerald interrupted, surprising even herself. Ruby took a long look at her and blinked, slowly. “Why are you doing this for me? I helped distract you while your friend was shot. I did terrible things for Cinder. I’ve been uncooperative, unhelpful, purposely so, even when I knew it could save other people. I don’t _get_ it.”

Ruby turned her back to her, busying herself picking up dirty clothes.

“You’re already going to be punished for that.” She threw a t-shirt over her shoulder. “I know you’ve done bad things.” She bunched up socks in the palm of her hand. “You don’t deserve to die for it. Neither did Cinder.”

When she turned back a sad smile played at her lips. From beneath her mountain of dirty clothes, she said, “I want you to have the chance to help. You can’t do that dead, and you can’t do it locked away in the station, but here… maybe you can. So if I tell you what I know, and you tell me what you know, can we finally put a stop to all of this?”

Her words squeezed like a hand around her heart against all of Emerald’s better judgement.

“… Okay,” she said.  

\--

Yang awoke with a start. Streetlights shone through her window, dotting her duvet with white and orange – _streetlights._ What time was it? Late – too late. She was supposed to be somewhere…

 _The hospital._ The previous night’s events filtered through her drowsiness: the club, the drunk, the gunshot, the almost kiss – _Jesus, Yang._ She stumbled through her room, dressing as quickly as she could. How could she not have even thought to set an alarm? Well, she’d never intended to sleep at all…

Something crashed in the kitchen.

Yang froze.

 _Thud. Thud._ Her heart beat in time with the sounds of footsteps from the living room, fast and irregular. Had she been gone long enough for Ruby to worry? She was the only person who had keys to her apartment, but she always loudly announced her presence on arrival. No – somebody had broken in. Quietly she crossed the room and opened her drawer. She took out her gun. Yang was a police officer – if anybody was trained to deal with burglars, it was her. She wouldn’t allow the thought that somebody had followed her home to cross her mind. She just had to deal with it.

She pushed open the door.

“Put down your-..”

A blow to the side of her head forced her to end her demand early and she stumbled into the opposite wall. Hands grappled for her gun but she held firm, though with the sharp pain dizzying her, she could do nothing with it but keep it from her attacker. In the dark it was impossible to see who they were, but they were fast – too fast. Two arms wrapped around her throat from behind and dragged her down to the ground, expertly rolling from beneath her to straddle her waist.

In that brief second of turning Yang fired. She didn’t care if it hit – all she needed was to shock them, to give her time to free herself from their grasp, but she failed; the attacker held on, unfazed, and the bullet shattered the window behind them. Their hand pushed her face into the carpet until it burned, and suddenly something sharp pressed into her neck.

She held her breath.

The white and orange streetlights streaked across her two-toned hair.

“Neo?”

The blade broke the skin and she clenched her teeth. To think that somebody so small could hold her down so aptly with nothing but a thin sheet of metal. No escape plan came to mind in her surprise – all she could do was lie there and hope she had a good reason to not immediately slit her throat, but Neo said nothing, gave nothing away. With her free hand she reached for her cell, and Yang could only watch as she punched in a number with a knife at her throat.

At least, that’s what she thought she was doing. Instead, Yang found herself face to face with the dim screen light.

 _Where’s Roman?_ It said.

Yang furrowed her brow. “Haven’t seen him.”

It quickly became apparent that she had given the wrong answer. Neo pressed her sharp knee into Yang’s wrist until her hand opened up and released her gun, then kicked it under the sofa. She raised her knife to her jaw and sliced downwards, enough to make her gasp out in pain, but it was the silent promise of more to come that finally caused the panic to seep in.

“I haven’t seen him since you chased us out the casino,” she said once more. Realisation slowly came over her, and it did not make her situation promising. “Is he missing?”

With one practised hand Neo typed another message.

_Where’s Mercury?_

No escape.

“I lost him,” she lied automatically.

When Neo raised her knife Yang kicked her hard in the stomach and rolled to the sofa but _no,_ Neo sped towards her before she could fish out her gun and slashed wildly _._ A hot, stinging pain spread across her abdomen but there was no time to check the damage – she kicked out again and scrambled to her feet while Neo dodged the attack.

“Cinder was killed in her cell,” she said as she walked backwards to the door, eyes locked on Neo’s. She prowled towards her, a predator, deathly calm, and nothing could stop the discomfort rising through Yang, the unfamiliar fear she felt towards the tiny woman – even more than Mercury she could see the danger radiating from her, could feel how far she would go to get answers that Yang _didn’t even have_. “This is Salem.”

She pounced as Yang pulled open the front door and she ran, sprinting down the corridor despite the pain burning through her because _what else could she do?_ Never before had she fought with someone so small and quick – she had no idea how to handle her, no weapon to face her, no _time_ to figure it out and she _hated_ herself so much for running anyway, for not staying to fight, but she wasn’t _stupid_. If she could lead her somewhere open, then maybe…

At the top of the stairwell she could still hear those heels clicking across the floorboards and she swung herself over the banister – anything for a few extra seconds on her. She miscalculated her landing – all that missed sleep, all those late nights: she dropped hard on her tailbone and smacked her back into the ground, knocking the wind out of her, blurring her vision and _shit,_ she was going to be murdered inches away from her own god damn house because she couldn’t _move_.

But nobody followed her down the stairs, and the silence stretched out, and when she focused again, Neo was gone.

_Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep._

She groaned.

Her phone buzzed against her thigh and for a moment she couldn’t move to reach it – all of her ached, and when she finally found the strength to push herself up her breath came in spluttered coughs. Nothing _felt_ broken, but she would be surprised if any part of her skin wasn’t blue, and the ache she felt then would be nothing compared to what she would feel the next morning.

_Beep. Beep. Beep._

Weiss’s photo flashed across the screen.

She accepted the call.

“Mercury’s gone.”

\--

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, that's how it works right? Emerald's got nowhere to go so one police officer could obviously take her in and be assigned to her. I'm sure that's it.
> 
> ... let's just say Vale is crazy and has some very lax laws.


	16. Closer

A dull ache wracked his shoulder and God, the pain was all too familiar. Hospitals – how far gone had he been to agree to one in the first place? The dead weight of his arm strapped across his chest made him heavier, and before he even reached the apartment exhaustion dragged down through him. He’d stayed too long. Now that his suspicions were confirmed, he had to get out of town - why had he stayed so long in the first place?

He knew the answer to that, and it only made him need to leave more, but damn, he couldn’t even carry his backpack after that walk with the painkillers wearing off, and he kept thinking about Emerald and whether or not she was safe, and Yang and how they’d nearly…

In the dimly lit apartment he stood half way between there and gone, debating, weighing his options, but he didn’t have much time to decide.

When the door creaked opened he didn’t know what to expect. Shouting, maybe. Fighting. Part of him thought she might go back on her word and try and take him down to the station for running, but nothing prepared him for the state she was in, dragging her feet, breath heavy, open wound across her jaw and vest torn and bloody. Before he knew it he was stepping forwards, hand hovering beside her to catch her if she fell.

“You couldn’t have waited another hour?” she exhaled.

The sight of her chased away any retort. “What the fuck happened?”

Her hand slipped to her stomach, and when she pulled it away her fingers were speckled with red. It seemed to surprise her.

“Roman’s missing, too.”

\--

Ruby sat cross legged on the sofa; Emerald mirrored it, or at least half did, one leg folded beneath her. She did most of the talking, but that was nothing unusual, and Emerald seemed content to listen.

“… but the problem is, we’re still no closer to finding Salem _herself_ ,” she sighed, coming to the end of her rambling. Emerald hummed. “I kept thinking something would come up… like, maybe she’d be at Junior’s Club, or we’d hear about another old hide out…”

“We never heard anything,” Emerald said. She picked at the skin around her fingernails. “There _is_ the casino, but the owners had a ‘disagreement’ with her, or something.”

“We could investigate anyway.”

“Did you forget I can’t leave here after eight?”

“Oh yeah,” she chuckled, hand on the back of her neck. Her laughs were always a little nervous around Emerald, though she no longer felt any reason to fear her. “Well, tomorrow?”

Emerald shrugged her shoulders. “I guess.”

She stifled a yawn behind her hand and glanced outside. Ruby followed her gaze – the streets below them were dark and shadowy, and very, very quiet. In fact, it was probably the quietest anything had been for Ruby since the day at the studio, and for once she actually welcomed it.

“Are you going to be comfortable enough here?” she asked, before they both fell asleep there and then, and Emerald shot her a look that reminded her just how many times she’d asked already.

“It’s fine,” she said, taking the sleeping bag Ruby had prepared for her and sliding beneath it. At least the sofa was big enough for her – whenever Jaune stayed over his lanky limbs hung off the ends like a too-big rag doll shoved in a shoe box. Emerald curled up on it quite easily when Ruby rose to her feet.

“Sleep well!” Ruby called out as she left her to sleep. “I’ll be in here. If you need anything. Like more pillows.”

“Ruby.”

“I’m just reminding you!”

She thought she heard Emerald laugh, but it was so slight that she might have imagined it. What she definitely didn’t imagine, however, was the quiet “thank you” that crept through to her when she closed her bedroom door behind her.    

\--

From the doorway he watched Yang sat in the bath in nothing but her ruined vest and underwear blinking at the tiles in front of her. The water was ice cold, something he remembered from all those times his dad came home drunk: the cold stopped the sting, and sitting there always helped shock him back to reality. Yang shivered in the water, but her expression was brighter, more alert. It worked. It probably wasn’t medically approved, but it worked.

Roman was likely dead. Not definitely – no, Neo was still searching for him, so there couldn’t have been a body, and though he hated to admit it, Roman was smart. Maybe he was luring them away, maybe to keep Neo safe. Not that she really needed anyone’s protection, evidently. The cuts she’d slashed into Yang could have been so much worse. He didn’t tell her what he’d seen her – helped her - do before. She was better off not knowing what type of person Neo was, and how close she’d been to something awful.

“This is my third shower in twenty-four hours,” she observed through chattering teeth.

“It’s a bath.”

“Don’t be a smart-ass.”

The grin was on his lips before he could stop it and she caught his eye, breathing out a quiet, tired laugh. What pissed him off about her wasn’t that she was so frustratingly attractive, it was that he actually _liked_ her - her sense of humour, her temper, her determination. He could count on one hand the number of people he’d met in his life that he actually didn’t mind spending time with - on two fingers, in fact – and the fact that she’d managed to get there so quickly startled him.

When she climbed out he busied himself looking for a first aid kit, because everything she wore was wet and transparent and he really needed to avert his eyes before she got too cocky about his gaze on her. He found one in the kitchen, well used and half empty, but at least it contained enough bandage and gauze to cover the wound on her stomach; of all of the nicks on her body, that one was the deepest. His own arm throbbed, but honestly, he’d dealt with far worse, and it was easy to push it to the back of his mind - kind of nice to have something else to focus on.

“You think it’s going to scar?”

They sat down on the bed side by side once she dried herself off and she lifted her vest slightly for him to see the angry red gash across her skin. Carefully he placed his fingers on either side of the wound above her hip and her breath hitched, just a little but enough for him to have to focus on his own pain again to get his mind off the sound.

“Nah,” he said after a moment, resisting the urge to swallow the lump in his throat. “Won’t even need stitches.”

“You sure?”

“My dad gave me a pretty encyclopaedic knowledge of injuries so, yeah. Lucky.”

Yang quietened down then and took the gauze and bandage from him, straightening her back as she wrapped it around her middle. When she finished she sighed, wrinkled her brow for a moment - not that he was staring – and with her thumb she traced beneath the cut on her jaw, as though checking for blood.

“And this one?” she asked.

It was too dark in the room to determine. He cupped her jaw between his fingers and turned her head to face him, to face the light, but somehow their lips met instead, soft and hot, and his hand slid to tangle in her hair and in no time at all she was in his lap, knees either side of him, and she was breathing in his ear for him to lie down, and she was taking off the damp remnants of her vest, and they were both too tired and hurt to do this, really, but it had to happen sooner or later. Her fingers fumbled with his belt; she made an attempt to pull off his t-shirt but he shouted out in pain when he moved his arm and she silenced him with her lips again, mouthing an apology into his.

“Is this okay?” she asked, breaking away quite suddenly. For once he couldn’t think of something witty to say, couldn’t deflect her question and avoid admitting how much he wanted her – he hummed something he hoped sounded affirmative and chased after her lips hungrily, and it was enough.

\--

_Beep. Beep. Beep._

Yang stirred.

Her skin was sticky and achy and beneath her a body breathed, slowly and steadily, his eyes scrunched closed like it would somehow block out the sound of her ringtone. She peeled herself off of Mercury’s chest. A wave of nausea hit when she sat upright on the end of the bed – it was too warm, and everything hurt, and she’d done something pretty fucking stupid.

Without even looking at the ID, she accepted the call. She could face what she’d done in five minutes.

“Hello?”

“Weiss called! Did you find Mercury?”

 _Never mind._ Yang knotted her eyebrows and looked over her shoulder at him laid out half dressed, jeans and underwear pooled around his knees, t-shirt crumpled from sex and sleep but still on beneath his sling despite her attempts to remove it. Her heart beat in her throat.

“Uh, yeah,” she answered after a brief pause. “Yeah. Sorry. It took a while. We’re both fine.”

“Good.” Down the phone, Ruby breathed a sigh of relief. “I’ll tell her. Jeez, I thought he was going to be killed too. You guys should come to mine. Emerald’s here now, and we’ve got some news. We should really think of what to do next together.”

“Yeah,” Yang said again. “Yeah. Okay. We’ll be there in an hour. Love you.”

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Mercury redressing, and she had to take a moment to compose herself. One deep breath and she turned and raised an eyebrow, hoping she had hidden her nerves well enough. What the hell were they supposed to say to each other?

Mercury grinned slyly. “I knew you wanted me.”

Like popping a balloon, the tension diffused immediately; Yang barked a laugh, held her hand over her mouth at the suddenness of it and grimaced at the pain that spiked in her stomach.

“You kissed me,” she reminded him when it subsided just as quickly.

“Oh, that’s not how I remember it.”

“Yeah, well, it was a one-time thing,” she said, smile light and teasing. The smug look he gave her said he didn’t believe it, and she didn’t press the issue further - it _should_ only be a one-time thing, but she was already thinking about climbing back over and kissing him again.

No. They had to meet up with Ruby and Emerald.

Standing up hurt – she could feel the bruising on her tailbone and back and arms and legs and really, those stung more than the stab wounds, and there was nothing she could do about them. She groaned and clicked her neck.

Looking around the room, something suddenly occurred to her.

“You know, when I asked about the guy who owns this place, they said he was on vacation for two weeks. How long have you been here?”

Mercury pulled an over exaggerated expression of thought, tilting his head to the side. “Hmm… about… two weeks?”

“Great,” Yang responded flatly. “It’s not like we left DNA evidence or anything.”

He laughed. “The place was already a pigsty when we moved in. Don’t worry about it. As for where I’m going to stay now…”

“A hotel?” she teased.

He shoved some things messily into his backpack and swung it over his shoulder. “So forward. You gonna buy me dinner first?”

“You already made that joke,” she grinned. “And I already bought you food.”

“Come on. A guy like me needs at least four stars.”

She tossed on a t-shirt she’d left a night or two before – probably unclean, but Ruby would have spares. As for what she’d do with Mercury when they were done there… well, she was sure they would figure it out as they went along. That seemed to be the way things were going.

Behind her Mercury took one last look around not-his apartment, and locked the door.

\--

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Inopportune timing much, Yang/Merc? Chill.


	17. Black Eyes

Emerald curled up on the sofa half under Ruby’s sleeping bag, fabric held between her legs, dressed in the pyjamas Yang had left at the bottom of her drawers the last time she’d slept over, and though her eyes were closed Ruby knew she wasn’t asleep. They both pretended she was anyway.

Inviting her to stay might not have been the best idea. Honestly, she couldn’t believe that Glynda had agreed to it, but ever since Cinder had been murdered those at the station were far too hassled to deal with the little things – how could such a tiny unit deal with the press, with the Grimm, with Salem, and all the rest of Vale’s crimes, and then still find a way to keep Emerald safe? How could Glynda afford to assign any more people to protect her?

She _couldn’t,_ and they both knew it.       

Emerald would deal with the law later. For now, they had a criminal to find, and a case to put to rest.

But first, Ruby made breakfast – well, toast, which was pretty much the only food she had left in the house aside from condiments and instant noodles. When she carried it through Emerald sat up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes, pulling her knees to her chest, and for the second time Ruby was struck by how pretty she was in the bright morning light.

She cleared her throat. “Breakfast!”

Emerald blinked at her slowly, knotting her brow. “Huh?”

“Breakfast. I made us breakfast. Sort of. Also, I called Yang. She’s coming here with Mercury so we can decide what to do next. Weiss’ll be here after her shift, and I left a message on Blake’s cell, so hopefully she’ll turn up too…”

She continued to stare at Ruby in mild confusion.

“Oh, no. You’re allergic to bread, aren’t you?”

In her drowsy, half-awake state Emerald closed her eyes and smiled, breathing out a quiet laugh that made the blood rise to Ruby’s cheeks. She was _very_ pretty – she’d known it in the cells, but seeing her outside curled up in her pyjamas made it even more obvious somehow. It didn’t feel appropriate to notice.

“Thanks,” Emerald said, accepting the plate.

They finished their food and the doorbell rang, and Ruby gasped aloud and held her hands over her mouth. Bruised and beaten with a nasty cut across her jaw, Yang stood in the doorway and rubbed the back of her neck, and even that small movement seemed to cause her pain – she saw the tension in her stomach as she straightened up, and immediately Ruby set her eyes on Mercury.

“Don’t look at me,” he said, gesturing to the sling that carried his arm.

“What happened to you?” Emerald came up behind her, hand on her hip.

“I got shot.”

“Not you. Her.”

Yang looked Emerald up and down suspiciously. “Neo broke into my house.”

Ruby didn’t know who Neo was, but Emerald pulled a face that suggested she was familiar with the name, and that it wasn’t a good one. Being out of the loop didn’t bother her, however – in an hour or two, there would be no more secrets.

Together Emerald and Mercury sat down on the sofa, and Ruby sat cross legged on the coffee table, and Yang sat on the floor with her knees hugged to her chest. When Weiss finally arrived she stood up as tall as she could, arms a tight barrier across her chest, and the two criminals in her living room shared a knowing look.

“Alright,” Ruby said, looking at her guests. “So. Who’s going first?”

\--

“You broke into a casino?”

“The door was open,” Mercury said, shrugging his one good shoulder.

“You broke into Blake’s _apartment?_ ”

“Well, he did,” Yang said, nodding her head to Mercury.

“Is Blake okay?” Ruby asked. Her eyes were wide, and Yang was suddenly taken back to their childhood, when she would read Ruby her bedtime stories whenever their parents worked late; the look of awe, and fear, and anticipation.

She sighed. “I haven’t been in contact with her since.”

“Oh, I can’t _believe_ her…” Weiss scowled, fists clenching in the crooks of her elbows. “We leave her alone for one day and look what happens! How could she not come to _us_?”

“Maybe she thought she’d already got us involved enough. I mean, she was the first one to figure out what was happening, right?”

“It’s not her fight!”

“What about you? What did you guys figure out?” Yang cut into the argument before it could begin, not because she didn’t agree with either of them – she did, she definitely, _definitely_ agreed with Weiss, that Blake should have let them in on her secret – but because there was nothing they could do about Blake _anyway._ Not until she told them where she was.

Ruby’s mouth snapped closed before she could retort, and suddenly she was sheepish, hand at the back of her neck, looking at the floorboards. For a moment she said nothing at all, and then:

“Uh… Pyrrha told me something after you all left…”

She delved into the tale of Ozpin and his private unit, of Salem and Sabrina and almost Pyrrha. Apparently his history of deciding what’s best for everybody went back years and years – at least twenty of them, in fact, and tension straightened Yang’s back against the leg of the coffee table.

_She worked with us. With your mother and your Uncle Qrow especially._

Not with her dad, or with Summer – Salem, Sabrina, Qrow, and Raven had been on an entirely different team, and now only one remained. Just how close had they all been? Were they friends? Yang’s stomach turned and turned, and she couldn’t work out why.

“Let’s get this straight,” Weiss said, oblivious to Yang’s internal torment. “Salem worked for Ozpin, not _officially_ for the police. That explains why we couldn’t find her name anywhere on the employee records.”

“Yeah,” Ruby agreed, “and why she has a grudge against him. I think he must have tried to hide what Salem was really doing for him. Maybe she thought he'd get her out of it…”

Yang pushed the thoughts of her mother and Qrow to the back of her mind and frowned. “So we know what happened. What now? Where do we start looking? She hasn’t been back to Junior’s Club in years.”

“Unless he was lying,” Mercury said. “He probably told the guy who shot me where I was.”

“Even if he _did_ lie, I doubt Salem would stay there knowing we’d figured out her hiding spot.”

Mercury shrugged his shoulder again, conceding.

“Neither of you know anything?” Weiss asked.

“She killed Cinder,” Emerald said. “If I knew where she was she’d be dead by now.”

Her words were cold enough to make the temperature drop, and the room fell into contemplative silence. Frustration fizzed within Yang – everything they had figured out all by themselves and still it lead them nowhere but the past.

“I still think we should try the casino again,” Ruby said. _Past, past, past._

“Roman and Neo aren’t even there anymore.”

“Exactly! It’s the perfect time to snoop!”

Well, it was better than sitting in the cramped apartment all day.

\--

He followed Emerald into the kitchen while the cops debated, while Yang changed. He’d expected Emerald to be the same as him – anxious to leave, to avoid Salem and her Grimm - but there was a fire in her eyes when she mentioned their boss’s name that he’d never seen from her before. She bristled with it.

“You good, Em?” he asked when they were finally out of earshot.

“Oh, fine,” she replied. “I just love being locked away while you’re running free with some bimbo and Cinder-..” but she stopped herself, took a deep breath.

 _Ouch._ “What’d you want me to do, break you out?”

“Apparently it wasn’t hard to get in.”

That stung. To himself, privately, he could admit that Emerald was the only friend he’d ever really had, that he honestly was stumped on a way to free her, that he really had thought about it but he wasn’t really much of a strategist, more of a weapon. But it wasn’t as if he could say it out loud.

Emerald sighed, covered her face with her hand. “Sorry,” she said, because obviously she knew anyway, and they left it at that.

“Stop conspiring and get in the car,” Yang’s voice carried into the kitchen. Mercury snorted.

“Just deciding how to kill you all in your sleep,” he called back.

“Not funny!”

He grinned. Emerald pushed herself up from the counter and looked at him, taking the glass of water she’d left the room to get in the first place in her hand.

“What’s her deal?” she asked. “Why's she working with you?”

“You know, I have no idea,” Mercury admitted as he followed her back out of the room. “She’s kinda fun, though.”

\--

In the daylight the casino was deserted, shutters pulled down over the windows and doors and streets empty in front of it. Ruby had no idea what it usually looked like, but if Roman and Neo owned it, and if they were missing, then maybe it had been closed down. That was promising – no Roman and Neo meant no staff, and no staff meant nobody to respond to any silent alarms, if what Yang and Mercury had said was true. It also meant that snooping would be a hell of a lot easier.

She tested the shutters; they clanged noisily against the bricks but remained firmly locked, as she had expected. Well, the front door was out.

“There’s another way,” Yang said. “I’ll show you.”

Yang lead them to a high metal fence and paled a little in front of it. She might have gotten over it without a problem four days ago, but with what she’d been through last night, climbing now seemed out of the question. A quick glance at Mercury told her the same was true for him, too.

“It’s alright - me and Emerald can look alone. Uh, and Weiss, if she-..”

“No,” Weiss firmly interrupted. “I’m not breaking in.”

Ruby wasn’t quite tall enough to climb up unaided, but fortunately Emerald was willing to give her a hand; she knelt down and boosted her over, and Ruby grabbed onto the bars and scrambled her feet against them until she could pull herself the rest of the way. From the other side she watched, a little aghast, as Emerald gracefully took a running jump and launched herself to her side.

“What?” Emerald asked at the sight of Ruby’s expression.

“Nothing,” she responded hurriedly, making her way to the fire escape.

Emerald knew her way around. They climbed a few flights of stairs, ignoring the terrible scent of stale alcohol and cigar smoke and God knows what else that followed them, and travelled the winding corridor until they reached the office door. There were no windows inside – she switched on the light and saw all the burns in the ashy carpet, and a suspiciously clear desk.

“Ugh. It stinks of him,” Emerald said as she crossed the room. With little care she dragged open the draws of the desk, one after the other. “And there’s nothing here.”

“Is there usually stuff there?”

She shrugged. “Last time he slammed it closed before I could look inside.”

“So… he cleared everything out?” she asked.

“That or he was just being an asshole back then. Both are possible. It’s Roman.”

A thorough search revealed little more than a few bottles of gin stashed behind the sofa and a couple of old newspapers supporting a wonky desk leg, and even those didn’t contain anything interesting. Anything of worth seemed to have been taken, either by Roman and Neo themselves or whoever had been sent after them, and it was with a heavy sigh that she finally accepted there was nothing there… though it wasn’t as if her hopes had been very high to begin with. Ruby always thought her uncle had the coolest job, but maybe that was because he made it look so easy – clues just seemed to throw themselves at him. All that she seemed to be able to find was thick, brick walls.

Just like the one in the alley they’d entered through.

“Huh,” Ruby said as they stepped back through the fire escape, coming face to face with a little black eye drawn in marker. She recognised it immediately, just like the symbol Blake had shown them in the bookshop almost a week ago, that Qrow had identified as belonging to the Grimm, but… not quite. “This doesn’t look like the one we saw. There aren’t any lines coming out the side.”

Emerald nodded absently. “Mhm. That one means it’s a Grimm hideout. Or, was, I guess.”

Slowly, Ruby turned to look at Emerald.

“The eyes… mean different things?”

\--

“We only ever drew two kinds,” Emerald said, now promoted to the front seat of the car. “You’ve seen both of them already.”

“But what does the other one mean?”

She shrugged her shoulders at Ruby again, and when the cops turned their eyes on Mercury he raised his one good hand in a proclamation of ignorance. Emerald rubbed her head.

“Cinder-“ it still stung to say her name “-had specific instructions. Of where we had to carve them, which way round they had to be… they were for after people were killed.”

The car lapsed into silence. Perhaps she shouldn’t have revealed that particular piece of knowledge – it did more than just implicate her part in the assassinations, but then, they had probably already figured that out anyway. For cops, they were pretty smart.

When Cinder told her to do something, she did it, no questions asked. Most of the time that was difficult; she always had a question on the tip of her tongue, but when it came to the carvings, Emerald had always just assumed they were a warning, a statement from the Grimm. The weird positioning, in her mind, was clearly only to ensure that they were noticed, but then why did Cinder order them to rotate them? With her head rested against the window, she furrowed her brow.

“Wait,” came Weiss’s voice. “The eyes are asymmetrical. What if the lines are directions? Like, arrows?”

Ruby made a noise half way between shock and excitement, a little gasp that lit up her entire face.  For some reason the sight of it made the corner of Emerald’s lips twitch.

“Well, if they are, we’re screwed,” Yang said. “Remember how Blake said they’d all been covered up?”

But Mercury shifted, fishing something out from his back pocket - apparently quite a task with only one mobile arm – and after a moment he handed his cell to Yang.

“Uh?”

“I wrote ‘em down,” he explained as Yang stared blankly back at him. “There were too many rules.”

From where she sat watching them in the rear view mirror it almost looked like Yang was about to grab him and kiss him. Suddenly she understood why Yang had put up with him, why Mercury had stuck with her, and somehow she managed to bite back her snide remark if only because they had so many more important things to worry about than that budding disaster.

“Yes!” Ruby exclaimed. “We can put them on a map of Vale, and see if they point somewhere!”

And when they pulled up outside Ruby’s apartment, when they squeezed themselves into the elevator, once they were sat around her tiny, messy coffee table, that was exactly what they did.

\--

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Phew this was the first chapter I hadn't finished well in advance, that was tense. Not many more left!


	18. Sleepover

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a shorter chapter than usual! Things are wrapping up now so I wanted to give the guys a little rest; after this it's nothing but crime solving.
> 
> And maybe smooching.

A map comprised of messily taped together sheets of A4 paper coated the surface like a table cloth. In black marker Ruby followed the poorly typed instructions on Mercury’s phone, sketching the eyes as directed over their original locations – everywhere a body had been found in the past month.

That Emerald and Mercury had drawn them didn’t exactly surprise her, but Ruby didn’t want to think about whether or not they had been the ones to carry out all those assassinations no matter how much evidence she was gathering to prove it. They seemed so normal sprawled out on her sofa, offering her the occasional correction when she drew an eye a little too far out of place, and to imagine them killing in cold blood… but then, she had been an officer for almost a year. She already knew you couldn’t tell a criminal by looks alone.

“Soo, do they point to anything?” Yang asked, chin rested in the palm of her hand. Her eyes searched the map, but like Ruby, she seemed to find it difficult to make sense of what she saw – the lines did seem to lead them to _something,_ but they weren’t exactly perfect coordinates. The best she could interpret was ‘east’.

“That hardly narrows it down,” Weiss said. She spun the map to face her, like she might be able to come to a different conclusion. With a scowl, she turned on Emerald and Mercury. “What’s east?”

“You have a map right in front of you,” Mercury responded. “Maybe that’ll help.”

“Relating to Salem or the Grimm or whatever, you-..”

“Why would Salem want to direct anybody anywhere anyway?” Yang interrupted, though Mercury only seemed amused.

“She’s clearly playing games with us!” Weiss folded her arms across her stomach with an angry huff. “It’s _probably_ a riddle.”

Ruby took the map back. The east side of Vale was actually one of the nicer places – there was a big, beautiful forest she’d visited a lot as a kid, but mostly it was just a residential area. She couldn’t think of anything there that would interest the leader of a mercenary gang, or anything that that leader might want to point them towards. It felt as if they were trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle with half the pieces.

“Maybe we should just… go east and… search?” Ruby suggested. Even to her it sounded a little desperate.

“It’s half four,” Emerald said. “We won’t have time, unless I break my curfew.”

“You could just-“ Weiss began, but Emerald quickly put a stop to it.

“I’m coming with you. I’m going to be there when you find her.”

She rolled her eyes. “Then what are we going to do in the meantime? Have a _sleepover_?”

\--

“There is no way on this Earth I am sleeping on your filthy floor, Ruby Rose.”

“Well Yang’s sleeping in my bed!”

“Hell no, I’m not. You always steal all the sheets.”

“I do not! Fine. Weiss, _you_ can share my bed.”

“After that glowing recommendation?”

“I only have one bed!”

Mercury snickered from where he reclined on the sofa, legs spread over Emerald’s lap comfortably, and she rolled her eyes to the back of her head in an overdramatic show of irritation. It may have been giving her a headache, but bickering, no matter the severity, was what Mercury liked the best – talk without feelings, all jabs and sly remarks.

“You want me to get that tag off you when we’re done here?” he asked, question hidden from the officers beneath their gradually rising voices. “I was thinking we could go to Vacuo. No one’ll recognise us there.”

With an almost nervous sideways glance Emerald met his eyes and sighed. “I don’t know yet, Merc.”

Not the answer he’d expected.

“Uh, what other options are you seeing here?”

“Serving my time?”

Mercury barked a laugh that made the girls in the other room fall quiet for a moment, at least until Weiss introduced the fresh issue of pillows. Once the debate was back in full swing, Mercury whispered, “Are you serious?”

Emerald shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t want to be running for my life forever.”

“You’d rather be in prison forever?”

“Well, up until you revealed you’ve been keeping _notes_ on your phone, I thought we’d been pretty careful. They didn’t have evidence linking us to anything other than the studio.”

He seriously doubted Yang or Ruby or even Weiss would try and suggest they were involved in anything more even having seen it spelled out for them, but then, with Cinder dead and Salem next on his and Emerald’s list, the public were going to want to see somebody paying the price for the Grimm’s crimes – just as well they had two ex-offenders perfect for the job. The justice system would not be lenient.

“You’re crazy,” he said, eventually, and Emerald laughed quietly.

“You don’t have to join me.”

“Good. I’m not going to.”

“Not even for your pretty little cop?” she mocked, and damn, she must have noticed from Yang, because there was _no way_ he was that obvious. “You run away and you’re not going to be able to keep that up.”

“It was ‘a one-time thing’, anyway,” he said, air quotations and all.

Emerald groaned, pushed his legs off her own. “Ugh, spare me the details.”

“What details?” Yang asked as the group filtered back into the room, conflict apparently resolved.

“Just you confessing your unbearable attraction to me,” he said with a smirk. To her credit her expression never faltered – she scoffed and placed a hand on her hip.

“Yeah, you wish,” she replied, a teasing smirk of her own playing at her lips. God, it did things to him that he couldn’t possibly act upon in front of the entire room – not without getting shot a second time, at least.

“Emerald, Ruby wants to know if you’ll go shopping with her,” Yang continued after a short look his direction. “Apparently she doesn’t have enough instant noodles to feed us all.”

“What? Why me?”

“Because Weiss doesn’t want to go, and she also doesn’t want to keep an eye on Mercury alone.”

She grumbled, but there was something in her eyes that made him think perhaps she wasn’t as annoyed as she pretended to be; if she really was planning on going to prison, she didn’t have many more opportunities to be outside left, and it was a shame, but he knew there’d be no changing her mind – if he ever insisted something she just pushed back against it anyway.

Emerald climbed off the sofa and Yang filled her seat immediately, then Weiss came along and shoved her closer, she herself making herself comfortable as far away from him as she could.

“Cosy,” Mercury remarked dryly, the warm skin of Yang’s arm pressed firmly into his.

“You can always sit on the floor,” Weiss suggested.

“Pass.”

He caught Emerald sighing with a fond smile as Ruby anxiously listed off the items on her shopping list aloud, felt Yang snicker against him, and had to remind himself he couldn’t take any more time in prison.

He couldn’t.

\--

Arms a barrier across her chest, Emerald trailed behind Ruby and thought. The tag around her ankle clinked against her shoes, horribly audible to her, though probably not to anybody else – nobody gave her a second look, at least.

Emerald didn’t grow up in Vale, not any more than she grew up in any other city, so feeling so foreign in the supermarket was a little stupid: people without homes were foreign everywhere, but something about the pristine white aisles and the high, well-lit ceilings made her feel it in her stomach. She didn’t remember the last time she’d been in a shop without slipping something under her shirt on the way out. She could probably do it behind Ruby, even, but she didn’t want to – didn’t see the point, though the urge surged through her anyway.

Without warning Ruby stopped, almost tripped Emerald over, and crouched down beside the freezer, humming her consideration over which pizza toppings to take.

“You do know this isn’t really a sleepover?” Emerald asked, but she couldn’t keep the amusement from her tone.

“Uh, _yeah._ There’s just so many of you that I can’t cook my usual super awesome sophisticated adult meals.” She slid a number of boxes into cart. “Also, I don’t have enough plates.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Are you doubting me?” Mock offence clouded Ruby’s face and Emerald barely supressed a snicker at the sight of it. The moment she let her smile slip Ruby looked down and hurriedly returned to pizza selection, clearing her throat noisily before beginning to read out their options.

“So which do you want?” she asked.

Emerald hesitated. People didn’t tend to ask her what she wanted. Choice was not something she had experienced much in her life – it almost felt like a test. Which did she want? Was she really supposed to decide? Ruby looked back at her when she didn’t immediately respond, opened her mouth to speak, and Emerald quickly said “Mozzarella.”

Ruby grinned. “Oh! Awesome. You can share with Weiss. I’ll get meat feast… ugh, Yang wants Hawaiian. You get to hear her and Weiss argue about that for the rest of the night. What about Mercury?”

“He likes Hawaiian too,” she said, and Ruby gave her a knowing, sympathetic nod.

“That makes sense. They’re kinda alike, huh? Except the criminal thing. It works out though – ooh, and it means I get a pizza to myself. Well, unless anybody else wants some, which is fine..."

She rambled all the way to the till, but Emerald didn’t catch any more of what she said. Cinder’s favourite topping was mozzarella, and for a moment she couldn’t remember whether or not it was hers too or if she’d just asked for it for Cinder out of habit. Guilt shook her for enjoying time with anyone else so soon after her death – time with a cop, one that would soon send her to court to pay for her crimes.

What would Cinder think of her now?

When Ruby asked if she’d carry one of the bags she snapped, and when the guilt only worsened she snatched one from her hands and walked ahead in a sullen silence all the way back to the apartment.

\--

Leant against the counter Ruby watched the glow of the oven alone. Her heart squeezed in her chest, a combination of worry, guilt, and sadness: worry, because they seemed to be rapidly approaching another dead end, and she wasn’t sure how many more of them they could take; guilt, because even with everything that was going on she could not stop thinking about Emerald, how interesting she was and how much more there was to her than she had ever expected; sadness, because there was no world where that crush would end well, where she could even consider considering finding out if the feeling was mutual.

_God, Ruby. It’s been a week. Pull it together._

The discussion in the living room was quiet, not quite as jovial as it had been earlier that day. She’d done something to upset Emerald while shopping, and Weiss was irritated, and Yang and Mercury were both exhausted from their injuries, but maybe the food would help. When the timer sounded she only burned herself a little on the corner of the tray, which was honestly pretty good for her, and when she took the plates in her guests wolfed down the food in silence.

Silence, at least, until Weiss wrinkled her nose at the sight of Yang and Mercury.

“Pineapple on pizza is an abomination,” she stated, deadpan and matter-of-fact.

Yang spat hers down her top as she burst into laughter and Mercury grinned and winked, making sure Weiss was looking before taking another bite. Emerald shook her head as a smile crept onto her lips and Weiss let out a long suffering groan, looking to Ruby for support but Ruby couldn’t help but laugh too, high pitched and giggly behind the hand stopping her from making the same mistake as Yang.

Through snickers Yang argued in defence of her choice in toppings – sometimes Ruby was sure she only chose it _because_ it offended Weiss so badly – and continued to when Ruby’s upbeat ringtone blared from the table. Still grinning, Ruby leant over and picked it up, looked at the caller ID…

“It’s Blake!” she blurted out, cutting through the sound. She shushed them all and accepted the call, holding her phone to her ear.

“Ruby!” Blake’s voice came through before she could even get out a greeting. “Yang won’t answer her phone. I’m at her apartment – somebody’s broken in. Tell me she's with you."

\--

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There she is. Late to the party as always.


	19. Whiplash

Blake had so much explaining to do.

Leaving them without a word, no contact save for one text telling them to stop calling, not even a voicemail to confirm she was safe somewhere in the middle of the worst murder spree in recent memory, and she had the gall to worry over an unlocked door? Okay, an unlocked door and some broken furniture, and the window, probably plenty of signs of struggle, maybe even a little blood – Yang hadn’t returned since to check.

Alright. Maybe Blake had the right to worry too, but Yang, Ruby, and Weiss had _more_ of a right, and she let that thought run through her head over and over in the twenty minutes it took Blake to drive over, let it make her angry. By the time she knocked on the door, Yang was ready to burst – but of course all of it melted away as soon as she saw her. She pulled her best friend into a bone-bending hug the moment she stepped through the door.

“You idiot,” Yang breathed out with relief – she was fine, not a scratch on her. “Why would you run off like that!?”

“What happened to you?” Blake avoided the question, eyes wide at the sight of Yang, and she held her at arms-length to take in her beaten appearance. She really wished people would stop doing that; it wasn’t doing anything for her self-esteem. When she tore her eyes away from the scratches and bruises that coated Yang’s skin and looked over her shoulder at the room’s occupants, Yang kind of wished she’d just carried on staring.

“What.” It was a question, but she said it so flatly it might as well have been a statement.

Yang sighed, looking back at the criminals too.

“It’s a long story.”

They sat around the coffee table, even less room than before, and Blake curled up on the floor, ready to listen. Yang wanted to make her go first, really, but Mercury and Emerald were one hell of an elephant in the room to address. Blake watched them distrustfully as Yang and Ruby explained – every so often Weiss scoffed, catching Blake’s eye and rolling hers, in case she didn’t already know it wasn’t her plan.

“This sounds like… a really bad idea,” Blake said, finally.

She wasn’t wrong.

“Well, we had to do something,” Yang argued. “If you were here…”

Blake let out a little huff and pulled her knees into her chest, rolling her eyes to the ceiling. Well, Blake _knew_ she was Yang’s moral compass, or at least Yang’s compass of sense, pointing her away from any and all bad decisions she made her way towards. It didn’t matter that she’d started her terrible idea before she realised Blake had run away – if she and Mercury had met when they were supposed to, when they broke into her apartment, _maybe_ Blake would have seen what was coming and put a stop to it.

Or at least tried.

“Sooo… what have you been up to?” Ruby asked.

That wiped the judgement off her face. She fidgeted in place, uncomfortable and hesitant, and Yang had the distinct feeling that whatever Blake was about to tell them was just as bad as what they’d told her, but she couldn’t decide if that would make things better or worse.

“After what happened to Pyrrha, I did some research,” she began. “Mostly they were just rumours and horror stories online about what the Grimm had done, conspiracy theories, that sort of thing. Not all of it sounded plausible, but one thing stuck out: it wasn’t only Vale that was targeted twenty years ago. It was everywhere, from Atlas to Mistral.”

Yang shifted in her seat, frowning. She’d never even thought of whether or not other cities had dealt with them, too. Had the Grimm really spread so far? Even Mercury and Emerald seemed uncomfortable at the revelation.

“I called Sun,” she continued. Yang remembered him – a tall, blonde police officer from Mistral that had once visited Vale and kept in contact. “I asked if they were dealing with anything like it, and it turned out they _were,_ had been for years, and their department was investigating the exact same symbol we found, and then suddenly the Grimm just… stopped. A few months ago.” She brushed her hair behind her ear, busying her hands. “It was easier to go to them to see what they’d learned.”

“Did they find anything out? About the symbols?” Ruby asked. Her eyes drifted to the map across the table, and Blake’s followed.

“Yes and no,” Blake replied. “The Grimm are mercenaries for hire – rather than a declaration, Sun’s department figured out that they were code to let other criminals know where to find them, so that they could hire them themselves. But the crimes came to a stop before they could properly investigate. They never figured out how exactly they were used.”

“But Ozpin would have known,” Ruby said, suddenly. “If he knew enough to send officers to Junior’s Bar twenty years ago, it probably meant he figured it out, right? Salem was targeting Ozpin alone… maybe the symbols were for _him._ Maybe that’s where he went.”

“But how do we follow?” Blake asked.

“The lines on the corners of the eyes all point east,” Weiss explained as she pointed them out on the map. “We’ve been unable to piece together where exactly, though.”

“That’s because there _isn’t_ anything east,” Yang said. “Just the forest and the fields.”

Ruby frowned. “Wait, the fields?”

Yang perked an eyebrow at her.

“There’s the shooting range. Where they train all the new officers. Remember?”

It was only ever in use a few times a year, an open space with a few rundown buildings, far enough from the residential area to hide the sound of gunfire. They trained there, their father trained there, their mothers… and Salem?

“So that’s where we’ll start looking,” Weiss said.

It was the strongest lead they’d had so far, and Yang grinned, nudging Ruby with her shoulder, seeing her expression mirrored back at her. The shooting range was the perfect place to hide out - suddenly she was sure that it was _exactly_ where they’d find Salem, and they would never have worked it out if they hadn’t asked Mercury and Emerald, not for months, maybe, and any guilt she might have felt for working with criminals began to slowly melt away. It was _worth it._

“There’s something else,” Blake said. The joy Yang and Ruby shared did not seem to extend to her; she looked down at her feet, avoiding Yang’s eyes. “I should have told you.”

Yang furrowed her brow, looking at her.

“Sun’s department had a few suspects; he read them to me over the phone. There was a name that came up a few times… with Salem’s…”

Blake paused.

The thing was, Yang knew what she was about to say. She didn’t know how - nothing really pointed to her - but it was just a feeling she had, that she’d had from the moment she first heard their names together. 

“Yang, I’m so sorry," Blake said. "It’s Raven.”

The worst case scenario, and there it was right in front of her.

“I didn’t want you to get hurt! I wanted to make sure they were wrong, first.”

“And were they?” Yang asked. Her heart beat so fast she knew that Ruby and Mercury either side of her could probably hear it, but she kept her expression neutral, as much as she could.

“I still don’t know,” Blake admitted. “But Salem was imprisoned for murder. Somebody had to help her to escape.”

It shouldn’t have meant anything. Raven gave birth to her; they were bound by blood and nothing more. No matter how hard she tried they’d never even been in the same room together, never even spoken to each other over the phone, but regardless, the knowledge that she could be involved in any way made her feel somehow responsible, like she should have known sooner to stop her.

Her fist clenched at her side without her even meaning to. What bothered her wasn’t that Raven might be involved with Salem… it was that Yang couldn’t pretend she wasn’t was doing almost the exact same thing, that she wasn’t granting freedom to a murderer. Was it any different? Was she any better?

Nobody spoke.

Despite everything, she laughed.

“Well, that sure would explain why she left,” she said light-heartedly, though it hurt. Ruby’s hand closed around hers, and the way Blake looked at her made her feel a little sick; sympathy was hard to swallow.

There was nothing left to say, and nothing to comfortably fill the silence that followed.

She pushed off the sofa.

“It's too hot in here,” she lied.

\--

Alone in the kitchen once more Ruby stood over the sink, swilling the plates before Weiss could complain about the mess. That, and it gave her a moment to think.

Poor Yang. She didn’t know what she’d do if someone suggested Summer had been a criminal all along – but at least she could plausibly deny it. They knew nothing of Raven other than the bits and pieces they’d gathered from Taiyang and Qrow, and what little they did know didn’t exactly clear her name.

Yang had moved to sit out on the balcony over the courtyard. Of course she wanted to join her outside and talk her through it, but experience warned her to give her some time to process what they’d been told. With what they might find the following day there was little she could say to comfort her anyway, but she wanted to. She wanted to so badly.

The sound of glass hitting the counter made her jump and drop her plate into the water, splashing soap suds down her top. Worse, it was Emerald who looked down at her with a half-amused smirk; catastrophically, she put her hand on her shoulder. Ruby gulped.

“What your friend said isn’t going to impact what happens tomorrow, right?” she asked.

Ruby sighed. “No. If anything, this’ll only make Yang more determined - she kind of gets tunnel vision sometimes…”

Emerald hummed and nodded, releasing her grip. For some reason she stayed in the kitchen anyway, watching Ruby finish the washing up. When she placed the last glass upside down to dry, she spoke again.

“This might not be the time, and I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow, but… thank you for getting me out.”

“Hey, no problem,” Ruby said, punctuated with a tense laugh. “It’s nice to see you in the real world.”

_Ugh, that was dumb._ She ran her hand through her hair and laughed a second time, whipping round to busy herself with – well, there was nothing left in the sink, so she just stood there awkwardly.

“You too,” Emerald said.

“Maybe once your sentence is over we could hang out again?”

She knew her voice had gone just a little bit squeakier than usual and hoped to God that Emerald wouldn’t notice. When she didn’t immediately respond she closed her eyes and held her breath, but the silence stretched on too long and one of them had to say something. She turned to face her and was surprised to see Emerald’s lips parted in halted speech, like she had no idea how to respond.

Eventually she figured it out.

“Sure,” she said. “Yeah.”

\--

On the balcony Yang picked leaves off the potted plant beside her, thinning them into little green shreds she dropped into her lap. The glass she pressed her back against was cool in the early evening, though the sun warmed her skin and lulled her eyes closed.

When the door slid open her brow furrowed and she sighed out a breath. “Not now, Ruby.” It wasn’t that she didn’t appreciate the concern – she just didn’t really feel like talking about it.

“Not Ruby,” Mercury replied, taking a seat opposite her and leaning against the balcony gate. As he always did, he pulled one knee to his chest and let the other tap against the window behind her. She found it an unusual way to sit – guarded and casual all at once. That described Mercury pretty well.

“You and Em abandoned me. I don’t think your friends like me.”

“I leave you alone for five minutes and you come after me? Clingy,” she teased half-heartedly. It earned her a snort but killed the conversation, and together they sat quietly, Yang shredding leaves and Mercury watching her hands.

“Guess I could have worked for your mom, huh? Weird.”

She laughed bitterly. “Yep. Don’t suppose you ever met her?”

Mercury shook his head. “Never heard the name before.”

She hummed.

She’d spent plenty of time wondering what her biological mother had left her for, curiously, resentfully. Did she meet somebody new? Find a new job? Did she just hate her? Something so severe as a ‘life of crime’ had never crossed her mind, but then, she never knew enough about her to truly speculate anyway.

If they found Salem tomorrow, would she be with her? She had photographs of her - she’d recognise her in a second, her dark amber eyes and mess of black hair. Jesus, would she have to arrest her own mother? Worse?

It wasn’t worth thinking about. Whatever happened, happened. Yet…

“What happened when you killed your dad?”

She asked it before she thought it, and cringed.

“A little personal, don’t you think, blondie?” came his retort, but when she looked back at him he looked down and picked up a little shard of leaf to play with himself. He paused before he spoke, so long she thought he might ignore the question altogether.

In the end, he didn’t.

“I got up and found him passed out drunk, so I stole his gun. I was gonna do it there and then but chickened out – a day later he held my hand on the stove for what-the-fuck-ever, so I shot him till he stopped getting up.”

“Holy shit.”

Mercury spoke of it so nonchalantly, but she had a feeling that was his way of dealing with the trauma – to pretend it was fine, to present it as though it hadn’t happened to him. He even laughed at her reaction, like his story was some kind of funny, messed up joke. That was the hardest to hear.

“What did you do after?” she continued anyway, “What did it feel like?”

He rolled his neck a little and flexed his hand, where she could see the faint outlines of burns, plural, blurring the lifelines on his palm. For a while he said nothing, and she didn’t push him any further – if he didn’t want to say, she understood.

Eventually, looking out blankly at the pink clouds darkening to purple, he said: “Nothing. I didn’t feel anything.”

She destroyed another leaf in her hands. She reached into her bra. She produced Mercury’s passport. He followed her movement, looked down at it inquisitively, like it was a test.

“If I see you again after we catch Salem, I’m arresting you. Got it?”

No matter how hard she thought, there were no other options. Mercury was a murderer, and he’d never willingly pay for his crimes, and she’d made him a promise; she was letting him go, and that was that. His expression was unreadable; he reached for the passport but slipped and took her wrist instead, pulling her sharply towards him. For a second time she felt his lips on hers, rough and warm and breath-taking, and her hand found the back of his neck until he moved across her cheek to her ear and murmured quietly:

“Got it.”

\--


	20. The Beginning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly I am so glad to send this chapter into the wild and never have to read it again you have nooo idea.
> 
> Edit: my loser of a best friend drew some awesome art of bickering Em and Merc (my favourite kind of Em and Merc) from this chapter http://kaelsketchbook.tumblr.com/post/152876030782/ugh-are-you-fucking-a-vampire-she-reached-for <3

Morning came and Ruby awoke to Weiss’s legs kicked over hers, face slack and ungraceful in the light that seeped through the blinds, so unlike herself in sleep. With a snicker she prodded her best friend in the ribs until her eyebrows furrowed and she batted blindly at her hand.

“Go away,” she mumbled half into the pillow. 

“Time to get up, sleepy head,” she sang in response, tearing the duvet from her body.

Alright – she was in a good mood. Today was the day they would take down Salem and bring Vale back to normality, she could just _feel_ it.

In the living room Emerald lay on the sofa, exactly as she had the morning before, hugging the sleeping bag to her chest. Beneath her Blake curled up on the rug making do with just a pillow, but she’d said it was fine; Ruby didn’t really have enough bedding to accommodate for six people, and it was much easier to sleep under one roof than to have to reconvene later. The final two were nowhere in sight, but she heard movement in the kitchen, and assumed they’d woken even earlier.

She pulled back the curtains and let the sun shine in over Emerald and Blake who groaned almost in unison, shielding themselves from the offensive light.

“Better be quick if we want to beat Emerald's curfew!” she said, making her way through to the kitchen.

Behind her, she heard Blake's grumbling complaint. "In thirteen hours..." 

Yang hid behind a mug of coffee as big as her head, still yawning and scratching her sleep-tussled hair. When Ruby entered she gave her a small wave and a smile, and Mercury climbed down from his seat on the counter and passed her in the doorway to leave.

“Sleep well?” she asked Yang, and she nodded.

“As well as you can on the floor, anyway.” She pressed her lips firmly to the rim of her mug. For a moment she considered bringing up Raven, asking how she was taking it, but there was no point bringing her down before they even started. What happened, happened; they would deal with any reappearing parental figures as and when they came.

Slowly movement took over the apartment, with bodies bustling in and out of every room, dressing and drinking and eating leftover pizza from the fridge. Little conversation took place as everybody worked their way out of sleep, and soon enough they were ready, piling in to Ruby’s and Blake’s cars.

It would be fine. Today was the day they’d fix everything.

\--

Protected by the sounds of Ruby’s radio, Emerald leaned over to whisper in Mercury’s ear.

“One-time thing?”

“Her words, not mine,” he murmured back with a grin.

“Ugh, are you fucking a vampire?” She reached for the collar of his t-shirt. He smacked her hand away before she could get a closer look, but it was too late - the dark marks snaking up his collarbone couldn’t be hidden from her eyes.

“Will you two behave?” Weiss called over her shoulder. Ruby snickered behind the steering wheel.

The music played loudly, and for a while they sat without speaking. Of course Mercury had to have a comeback – he tilted his head down to murmur once more.

“You can’t talk. Or haven’t you noticed your new best friend’s little crush?”

She rolled her eyes and looked in the rear-view mirror just as Ruby looked at her – quickly she averted her gaze back to the road, like they’d been there all along. _Huh._ That couldn’t be right. When she looked back at Mercury he flashed her a wink, and for once in his presence she found herself speechless.

\--

No matter how much she wanted to be angry at someone – anyone, really - she couldn’t be angry at Blake. Sure, she’d run off, made her worry, hid information related directly to her… but they were best friends. She knew that she’d only done what she thought was best, even if it _was_ stupid, but then again, what right did she have to call anything stupid with all she’d done?

It didn’t help much for conversation all the way to the forest. Yang propped her elbow on the open window and stared down at the map on her phone, and Blake drummed her fingers against the steering wheel, eyes on the road, but neither of them had said much since leaving.

Eventually, Blake did. “This could be a trap.”

She spoke softly, so much so that it took Yang a moment to process her words.

“You really trust Emerald and Mercury? What if they’re-..”

“No,” she interrupted. “What happened to Mercury wasn’t pretend. The only reason he didn’t get shot in the head-..”

… Was because he’d moved to kiss her. Yang pursed her lips, conceiving a plausible lie, but Blake didn’t need it.

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“I trust you,” she said. “And your judgement.”

Without the addition it would have been sweet, but Yang was in the middle of a crisis when it came to her own judgement, so her grip tightened around her phone and she stared back out the window until they pulled up behind Ruby and the car rolled to a stop.

\--

A strange scene awaited them when they climbed out their vehicles and headed up the hill: a forest of trees dying too soon, a wide open field, and a series of buildings and equipment, all seemingly disused or at the very best neglected. Some of them seemed to have obvious purposes: a shelter covering tables laid out in front of various targets, which he immediately recognised as the shooting range Ruby had mentioned; a small building besides it, doors bolted and windows barred; cones weaved around the dying grass, probably for agility training; a large empty structure that’s purpose he couldn’t decide.

Mercury wasn’t born in Vale. He didn’t know the history of it, nor did he particularly care, but there was a good chance Salem was hiding out somewhere amongst them - and since she’d so kindly sent an assassin after him, he couldn’t wait to return the favour. Emerald drew up beside him, bristling with the same vengeful energy.

“We can’t just walk in.” Ruby’s voice lowered to a whisper. “She might have guards.”

“What’s the big building?” Emerald asked, coming up behind her. Emerald was right; she wouldn’t have bolted herself in, and he doubted she’d be hiding out in the forest.

“I think it used to be a school? Ages ago. I guess nobody ever got round to repurposing it.”

“Mercury and I should check it out-..”

“No,” the four cops spoke in unison, and Mercury frowned. He made his way over anyway, but a hand grabbed his wrist. He didn’t need to look down to know whose.

“I have your gun, remember? What are you going to do, swing your arm at her?” Yang asked. “Ruby’s right. We need to think this through.”

“Then what do you suggest?” Emerald asked.

He watched as Ruby took in their surroundings, eyes ghosting over the old building, plotting. Her face scrunched up in concentration, and he was more than a little taken aback at how young it made her look – like a kid playing cops and robbers.

“We’ll go together,” she said after a while. “All six of us. I don’t know where she’ll be or what it looks like on the inside, so she has the advantage. If we see any sign of Grimm… we should retreat.”

“Are you crazy?” asked Emerald.

“Em,” Ruby said. He wasn’t surprised to hear her using a nickname; the girl was smitten. “If she’s going to run away, she’ll do it while we’re dealing with the Grimm anyway. This way we at least have a chance of coming back with reinforcements.”

“We don’t know that the cops aren’t in on this!” Though she still whispered, the urgency in Emerald’s tone increased.

“It’s our only option.” Ruby spoke calmly, professionally. “She can’t get away.”

Yang looked at her as if she might burst with pride. He took one look at Emerald and shrugged his shoulder – Emerald sighed and nodded, relenting, falling in line behind him.

The broken door they chose to enter was engraved with a familiar shape: a small eye, lines absent.

They entered.

\--

It certainly looked like a school. Emerald never spent much time at any of hers – she preferred to hang out at the mall, in the parks, anywhere else. She felt no nostalgia at all walking down the bare corridors, at seeing the marks along the wall where posters had once been, at the signs falling off the doors of classrooms. Much like at the supermarket, she felt foreign there.

They peered into every empty room. They listened for any little sound. All she saw were spiders and rats; all she heard was the sound of their own footsteps.

“Maybe she _is_ in the forest,” Weiss quietly suggested. “That would be a better hiding place.”

“I don’t think she’s hiding,” Blake responded, just as quietly. The pull of anticipation in Emerald’s stomach agreed with her.

The path led them to a staircase and they climbed up to the second floor. Emerald wasn’t leaving until they’d checked every room, but fortunately nobody suggested it. Sunlight shone in through a hole in the ceiling, illuminating the dust they unsettled with every movement. She thought it looked peaceful.

A man’s voice came from ahead, and they stopped. It was quiet, too quiet for her to recognise, but… 

“It’s Ozpin,” Ruby breathed out. “He’s alive.”

She heard a second voice, one belonging to a woman. She had never heard it before, but somehow she knew who it had to belong to – deep and confident, cold as ice. It made her blood boil. They were so close.

“It seems as if help has finally arrived, Ozpin.”

\--

"Do you know what this place is?"

She had hardly crossed the threshold when Salem addressed her. Ruby’s heart beat in her throat at the sight of her, and her hand fell to her gun at her side, eyes on Ozpin. He sat unrestrained, quite comfortably on a slightly too small chair, hands knotted together in his lap. Nothing about him seemed frightened or out of place – he simply looked at her, calmly, as he always did. It sent a shudder down her spine.

Salem continued. “This is where Ozpin brought us to train us. In private. This is where our team began.”

Her eyes drifted to Yang, and there was an unmistakable flicker of recognition. She opened her mouth to speak once again, but Ruby wouldn’t let her.

“Salem Crowley, you’re under arrest on suspicion of murder, conspiracy-” Ruby began, but Salem’s smile stopped her in her tracks.

“You’re Summer’s daughter,” she said. Then she thought her heart might have stopped beating. “Don’t worry. I don’t blame you. Only one man is to blame for where we are today.”

She sat down behind the desk at the front of the classroom and looked across the room to Ozpin. She mirrored him, interlocking her fingers, placing them on the dusty surface. It was so oddly threatening, and they could have just handcuffed her there and then – she didn’t look as if she would fight it – but none of them did, and Salem seemed to know they wouldn’t. Everything was so confusing.

She just wanted answers.

“Why don’t you explain?”

Now they all looked to Ozpin. There was a strange atmosphere surrounding them, eerie and uncomfortable. It made Ruby want to grind her teeth. Even Emerald and Mercury were silent, the anger they felt towards the woman temporarily abated. Maybe by curiosity, too.

Ozpin sighed.

“I am afraid I made many mistakes in my time,” he began. “More than could ever be forgiven.”

Salem barked a laugh, startling and cruel.

“We know about Salem and Sabrina, and Qrow and Raven,” Ruby interrupted, voice a little too fast, and Salem’s eyes brightened just slightly, like maybe she was impressed. “We know you hired them illegally. And we know what _you_ did to your sister.”

When Ruby addressed her directly, Salem smiled once again - it was a horrible thing, but Ruby stared back, unfaltering. Behind her she felt Yang shift, moving closer automatically, protectively. Her hand was on her gun, too.

“Continue, Ozpin,” she said without even looking at him.

“Salem did not kill Sabrina,” Ozpin said, simply, abruptly. “The Grimm did.”

“And you knew it all along,” Salem snapped.

“I did.”

The information wasn’t shocking to Ruby – not anymore. It was like watching a film play out in front of them, one that she had missed the beginning to. She felt as if she were about to see the end.

“If the public discovered that we knew where the Grimm were, that I had sent people who did not work for the police to investigate, and that I had been doing so for some time… the backlash would have done much more harm than good.” Ozpin stayed so still when he spoke, back straight, so proper. “It would have put the entire station under suspicion. Times were hard. I let Salem take the blame. We needed trust if we were ever to put an end to the Grimm.”

“Then maybe you shouldn’t have breached that trust it in the first place.”

Salem pushed herself back up and circled Ozpin like a shark.

“You killed Sabrina. You sent us there that night. You knew what would happen. Just like you did to that poor redhead you sent after Cinder-“

“But you killed Cinder.” Emerald interrupted now, practically leaping forwards – she might have had Mercury’s arm not shot out in front of her, holding her back. “You killed her.”

“In ordered it,” she admitted. Her eyes glazed over them. “I take it that you two are Emerald and Mercury. I would say it is nice to finally meet you… but I did intend to make sure I would never have to.”

“ _Why?”_ Emerald asked through gritted teeth.

“Ozpin came here of his own free will,” she said. “Cinder was just a tool to move him here faster. You all played your part - I believe Ozpin would call it ‘tying up loose ends’.”

“I think it’s time to end this, Salem,” Ozpin said.

“Not until everybody knows what you did.” When she turned back to him her expression was stony, but still her eyes betrayed her, hot and penetrating.

“I’m sorry he blamed you.” Ruby took a step forwards and Yang flinched behind her, moving with her. Her concern was palpable; she knew she was scaring the life out of her, but she _had_ to. “I’m sorry. It was wrong. I’m sorry this happened to you.”

“Funny. That’s just what your mother said when she put me in handcuffs.”

She felt sick. She actually had to swallow the lump in her throat to prevent her from gagging. She didn’t want to know what her mom knew. She suddenly didn’t want to be there at all. Oblivious or uncaring, Salem waved her hand dismissively as she walked again.

“As I said. I don’t blame her. She might have been more helpful, of course. Like your mother,” she looked at Yang curiously. “You look just like her. Let her know how thankful I am for her assistance, will you?”

“She’s not with you?” Yang croaked. She stood behind Ruby so ready to fight, but her nerves betrayed her; they were both afraid, not just of Salem, but of their connection to her.

“Not for a long time." She pursed her lips, humming low in her throat. "Hmm… I guess she wouldn’t after what she did.”

“What did she-..”

“That is not what we are here for,” Salem cut in, and Yang jumped at the suddenness of it, jaw snapping shut. “Now. How can I be sure you will let the world know what Ozpin did?”

“I will tell them,” Ozpin said. “I have held this secret for too long. I am getting old.”

“Yes, you are,” Salem agreed.

“Just come back with us,” Ruby said. “You can make sure everybody finds out yourself.”

But Salem gave a small sigh, finishing her pacing and coming to a stand behind Ozpin. Her hair, long and white, just like in her mug shot, was loose and untidy; beneath her mask of cruel confidence she looked tired, worn. To be blamed for her own sister’s death was such an awful thing, and Ruby couldn’t help but feel the tiniest pang of sympathy from her, somewhere beneath the disgust, the fear.

Salem never killed her sister. When she was sent to prison all those years ago she was an innocent woman, young and alone, grieving. Ozpin had sacrificed her, and maybe he thought it was for the greater good, but it wasn’t worth the price Salem had to pay. Regardless, the thing she had become in her quest for revenge… six people were dead, all to get one man’s attention. Six people were gone, just to make a statement.

Now Salem really was a criminal. And like all criminals, she had to serve her time.

“Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s an option,” Salem said.

“Why not?” Ruby asked, but Salem never spoke another word. She simply lifted her gun from somewhere beneath her skirt and emptied it into Ozpin’s head.

\--

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I can't count. I wanted this finished before RWBY4, but there's two more chapters to go... I'll try to upload them tomorrow and Friday. Neither are very long anyway!
> 
> Funny thing - I realised half way through writing this fic that we have no idea what Salem is like. At all. I settled on creepy drama queen, but I'm sure in a few months time I'll be laughing at how ooc this is haha.


	21. The End

It happened so fast.

Yang’s hands shot to her mouth as Ruby cried out. It only took that second for Mercury to snatch his gun from her and shoot Salem through the chest.

It happened so fast.

When Salem hit the floor Ruby ran, falling to her knees besides Ozpin. Emerald went with her; Yang couldn’t move fast enough. She couldn’t process.

It happened so fast.

Emerald enveloped Ruby in a tight hug, pulling her head into her chest. Ruby didn’t cry, she only shuddered and gaped at the sight of their former boss, their family friend, dead on the ground. Beside him Salem spluttered, her final breaths violent in her throat, her blood soaking the gum-covered carpet.

“You didn’t have to do that,” Ruby choked out.

“I did,” Salem said, finally, and her breath came to a slow, painful stop.

“Oh my god,” was all Weiss could say. The scene before them was gruesome, even more so than what they had seen at the bookshop because only seconds ago there had been eight of them crammed inside and now they were six and two bodies. Yang wasn’t squeamish - she never thought she was - but she felt close to throwing up, and Weiss actually heaved, and quietly Blake spoke.

“We need to report this in.”

“Outside,” Yang said, and Blake nodded quickly, the skin of her face paled like dust.

\--

The walk downstairs was silent, but not like before. Before, it had been filled up with anticipation, heavy and tense - now it was an empty quiet, dull, complete.

They hadn’t been quick enough. _She_ hadn’t been quick enough. Ruby never thought ahead - how would they explain this at the station? To Glynda? To her uncle? How would it look? Well, it would be just another blemish on their reputation once everyone knew what Ozpin had done all those years ago, because they couldn’t keep this quiet – it wasn’t right. Just another incompetency. How could they recover from _this_?

Yang took her hand and squeezed it once.

\--

“She was mine,” Emerald hissed to Mercury when they reached the exit.

“Nah,” he replied. “Not if you ever want to leave prison.”

She had been so close to being the one to put an end to her, but in the end, Mercury was right. He was leaving, she was staying; a confirmed kill on her list would only add to her time inside, no matter who it was. Had Mercury really thought about that?

Probably not. He just liked to kill. It didn’t matter; she didn’t ask, and Mercury didn’t say.

\--

The sunlight outside made him recoil, aggressively bright in his eyes. When the blots in his visions cleared, he realised just how fucked he was.

“Put down your weapons,” a man said, shielded behind the door of his police car. Mercury cursed under his breath as the others held up their hands in surrender.

It was a stupid idea, but he didn’t have many options. He reached forwards around Yang’s neck and pressed the barrel of his gun into the flesh beneath her chin and prayed she wouldn’t fight it. She didn’t; slowly he walked her backwards into the building as the girls yelled indistinguishable things at him, as the police shouted orders he ignored.

“If you follow, she’s dead,” he said. Well, it went without saying, but he thought he should be sure anyway.

The door slammed shut behind them.

\--

“Get off of me.” Yang swung her elbow into Mercury’s chest, exhaled when Mercury released her throat. “Idiot. They’re never going to believe I couldn’t kick your ass. You should have picked We-..”

But a kiss interrupted her, sudden and over far too soon, because Mercury pulled away first to check over his shoulder, as paranoid again as he was at the club.

“Bye,” he said, simply.

“Wait,” Yang replied before he could break into a sprint. He paused. “You’re not going to outrun them. You’ve got one working limb.”

“Just because they’re not real, doesn’t mean I can’t use them,” he said, and he wasn’t wrong – she’d almost forgotten about them until they’d slept together, but he could do anything she could. He’d proven that a few times. “Only the best from daddy dearest,” he finished sardonically.

When she couldn’t come up with a response, he carried on.

“Wait!” she said again, and this time he turned around, cocked an eyebrow. Yang held out her hand expectantly. “Can’t have you killing anyone else. Gun.”

His face split into a grin, and he laughed. “Come get it.”

But she didn’t – of course she didn’t – so he disappeared down the corridor. She counted to sixty. She closed her eyes. She stumbled back outside.

\--

They didn’t stay around to see forensics. This time they didn’t have to beg for the information second-hand.

Emerald was re-arrested, but now she went quietly, and allowed herself to be ducked into Oobleck’s car calmly. Weiss and Blake returned the cars they’d arrived in. Qrow took Yang and Ruby back to the station himself.

From the window Ruby watched as the forest faded into the background, small then non-existent behind the streets they travelled. Nobody spoke: none of them had since Mercury released Yang, since she emerged from the school, since Qrow dashed over just as Ruby pulled her into a hug.

It couldn’t have been any later than noon, but the day’s events had drained Ruby so thoroughly she could hardly keep her eyes open. Yang on the other hand seemed firmly awake, brows furrowed in silent irritation, fingers clenching and unclenching against the palms of her hands till her blunt nails left imprints.

“Did you know he was there the entire time?” she asked. Her voice was sharp, more than a little unkind, but Ruby couldn’t blame her. She felt the same.

His guilty silence was his answer.

“Why didn’t you save him sooner?” Ruby asked, and her own voice was hoarse, no louder than a whisper.

“He said he had it under control.”

There was a bump in the road that made Ruby a little queasy. Their surroundings became more familiar; they passed Blake’s place, then Tukson’s. Somebody had already graffitied the casino’s shuttered windows. 

“You should have told us.” Yang didn’t look at Qrow.

He only glanced into the rear view mirror, at Ruby and Yang and the space between them. For a while he didn’t respond at all.

“We should have,” he agreed.

They pulled into the station.

\--

Emerald sat in the interrogation room. Well, two nights of ‘freedom’ wasn’t bad. Maybe she would still be put away forever - and she cared, of course she did, but not as much as before. Now she was resigned to it.

She’d loved Cinder. She’d loved her, but she was a weight on her chest that dragged her heart into her stomach, so heavy, all-consuming, and it was impossible to ignore the lightness she felt now she was gone, now that her murderer was dead. Acknowledging that was weirdly freeing.

It didn’t surprise her to see Ruby so soon. The girl never gave her a moment to rest, but she’d realised that she didn’t mind; somehow Ruby had grown on her, cheery and sweet and forgiving and everything Emerald wasn’t. Everything Cinder wasn’t. She realised she’d been anticipating her arrival, and more than that, she’d been looking forwards to it.

When Ruby sat down across from her she seemed unable to summon a smile. It bothered her.

“Sorry about Ozpin.”

She wasn’t, but she said it anyway, in case it was what Ruby needed to hear.

“Yeah,” Ruby replied. “I don’t know what’ll happen here without him.”

Emerald shrugged her shoulders. She didn’t say what she thought - that the station would be better off without the secrets, that things would go much smoother without him playing games behind the scenes - but only because she knew Ruby was thinking the same thing. She wasn’t stupid. Just optimistic.

“Sorry Mercury ran off,” Ruby said. “I know you were friends. I just can’t believe he did that… I thought he got along with Yang.”

She barely suppressed a snort, more because she didn’t want to be the one to break the news to Ruby than because she wanted to protect their ‘secret’.

“I guess. It’s not like he’ll be on the run for long, anyway – he literally carries evidence from crime scenes on his phone. Idiot.”

The sound of her snicker made Emerald feel strangely accomplished. Maybe Mercury hadn’t been wrong about the whole crush thing – maybe Ruby did like her. When she smiled at her reaction, Ruby’s cheeks certainly did darken, only a little but enough for her to notice under the harsh interrogation room lights.

“So, are you here to question me?” Emerald asked.

“Nah,” Ruby replied, rubbing her cheek. “Just thought I’d come down and say hi. Hi.”

“Hi,” she laughed.

Okay, so Mercury was definitely right – but even a broken watch was twice a day, or something like that. Ruby had a crush on her, just like he said. She _hated_ it when he worked something out before her, but at least she could take solace in one thing:

He’d never realised the feeling was mutual.

\--

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Epilogue tomorrow! Thanks for sticking around this long <3


	22. In Three Months Time

“This wouldn’t happen if you would just _clean your desk._ ”

“It _is_ clean!”

“Then explain why you can’t find your keys?”

“ _Clearly_ you scared them off with all your _screaming._ ”

“I am not screaming,” Weiss said haughtily. “I am simply reminding you that it’s been almost four months since the last time you threw away all your old papers, and that your mess is bringing down the entire office.”

“Oh my god,” Ruby groaned, tilting her head to the ceiling and squeezing her fists by her sides. “Will you just help me look?”

“You piled the papers too high, Rubes,” Yang called from her desk across the room. “Weiss can’t reach.”

Weiss huffed. One beautifully manicured hand snatched a sheet from the wreckage (okay, she had a point) that was Ruby’s desk, and crumpled it in her palm. It flew through the air quickly, perfectly… and landed in the basket behind Yang.

To say that the room erupted would be an understatement.

Yang sprinted to Weiss and threw her over her shoulder, cheering and shouting; Pyrrha giggled uncontrollably; Jaune pumped his fist in the air. Blake grinned and patted her on the back as Yang paraded her around the room, and all the while Weiss wiggled and struggled to free herself from her vice-like grip.

“You finally did it!”

“I hope there is a fire in there,” came Glynda’s voice from behind her office door. It really deserved more praise than what they had given her – after three long months, Weiss could finally throw, and Ruby swore she could feel a proud tear threaten to form in the corner of her eye, but she held it back and placed her hand on Yang’s shoulder in a silent reminder that they _were_ at work, and maybe she should put Weiss back on her feet. With a final giggle and grin, Yang complied.

Ruby returned to her desk. “Oh!” she said. “You were right. My keys were under the papers. Thanks Weiss!”

“Tell Emerald we said hi,” Blake said, waving a lazy goodbye.

“I’ll walk you to the car,” Yang said. “I’ve got to burn off some of this energy. Good job, Weiss.”

\--

As the sisters descended the stairs, the room returned to normality, scratching of pencils and tapping of keyboards ringing out over the sounds of traffic in the streets below. A cold breeze wafted in through the open window; winter was coming, and Vale was beginning to feel it.

Weiss slumped to a seat on the edge of Blake’s desk, staring blankly at the floor in front of her.

“What’s wrong?” Blake asked, smirk playing at her lips. “I thought you’d be more proud of your victory.”

In a quiet voice, Weiss spoke:

“I was aiming for Yang…”

\--

It was easy to spot Emerald outside the courthouse, mint green hair protruding from her hoodie, autumn leaves whipping around her in the icy wind. For once the press seemed to have left her alone, or maybe Ruby was just late, but if she was, Emerald made no indication – the moment Ruby pulled up she saw the smile beneath the shadow of her hood, and Ruby couldn’t help but grin too.

“How’d it go today?” Ruby asked, stealing the pockets of Emerald’s hoodie. Emerald put her hands there too, fingers dancing around Ruby’s, cooling her skin.

“I have no idea,” Emerald admitted. “They’re still deciding if I was an accomplice or conspirer or… whatever.”

The trials were never ending. Without Salem, without Mercury, without any Grimm with any authority, it was near impossible to gather information on what happened at all, let alone verify any of it. Somebody needed to be punished for the six deaths that occurred that long summer. The problem was figuring out who, and whether or not they had already paid the ultimate price.   

Awkwardly they backed over to the car; Ruby refused to remove her hands until they were free from the cold, and Emerald snickered.

“Just get gloves,” she suggested.

“Maybe I want to hold your hands.”

Emerald pulled a face that Ruby laughed at, quickly turning her head away. “That’s so lame.”

“You can’t fool me, Em,” Ruby grinned. “You think I’m _adorable._ ”

“Maybe,” she responded, and she moved her hands from her pocket to tilt Ruby’s chin up towards her, pressing their lips together gently. Her warm breath made the heat rise in Ruby’s cheeks and her heart beat just a little faster, and they had been together over two months, now; it was really time for her to get it together. She couldn’t help it. She really liked her.

The fond look on Emerald’s face made her flustered burst worth it.

She pulled her hood down when she climbed into the seat beside Ruby, but she kept her sleeves held over her knuckles and played with the loose thread there. Ruby watched it distractedly, forgetting she was supposed to be driving, forgetting what she wanted to say.

“I’m sorry,” Emerald murmured. Ruby blinked.

“Huh?”

“You know what.”

Being a police officer and knowing that her girlfriend had been involved in a spree of murders wasn’t easy - especially not when she knew she was lying about them in a desperate attempt to get less time behind bars. Especially when she almost _wanted_ her to lie for the same reason. Often she felt split in two: her moral compass didn’t know which way to point. It was why she’d never asked her about it. At least not knowing meant she wasn’t exactly lying.

When Ruby was called to court she kept her answers vague. _No, your honour, she never mentioned murder. Yes, your honour, her cooperation was what helped us find Salem. No, your honour, I only saw her at the studio._ The further she distanced herself from it, the easier it was to pretend they were normal, to ignore the information she had that could put her away for life. But it hurt, sometimes, when she couldn’t push the thoughts away. It hurt a lot.

Ruby leaned across the car and pulled Emerald into another kiss, hand pressed against her soft cheek, and Emerald shifted in her seat, following her down. She felt her fingers skim the edge of her uniform, felt them slide across the skin of her stomach and touch the ticklish flesh there. Ruby breathed out a shaky laugh and caught her wrist.

“Maybe not outside the court,” Ruby smiled, and Emerald looked over her shoulder, blinking as if she had forgotten where they were.

“Good point,” Emerald agreed, straightening back up again. “Drive on, then.”

Sometimes it hurt, and Ruby had no doubt it would hurt more someday in the future when the court sessions finally came to an end, when Emerald would finally serve her time. Even though it did, Ruby couldn’t ignore how strongly she felt for her.

They’d made it so far. Prison would be a bridge they would learn to cross when they came to it.

\--

Outside was cold and dark, and it was only six in the evening: summer was well and truly over, and Yang already missed it - the sunshine, the heat. She rubbed her hands together over her desk, cursing the open window on the opposite side of the room, far too lazy to move to close it.

“Need a lift home?” Blake asked, pulling her bag over her shoulder. 

“Nah,” Yang replied. “I’m gonna finish this first,” and she tapped the form in front of her, wrinkling her nose in distaste. There had been more paperwork than she had wanted in the aftermath of Salem and the Grimm, but not more than she had expected - depressingly she had resigned herself to late nights working all throughout the rapidly approaching winter. Whatever. It needed to get done.

“See you tomorrow, then.”

“Close the window?”

Blake perked an eyebrow as she reached the door and glanced over her shoulder, snickering. “Don’t be lazy, Yang,” she said as she left the room.

Yang’s head hit the desk. With a grumble and sigh she pushed herself up, crossing the room to the offensive window. She locked her fingers around the frame and pulled it down. Something caught her eye.

Beneath the streetlights a figure stood, hood pulled down over their eyes, hands tucked into the pockets of their jeans. It wasn’t the presence of a random person on the streets that grabbed her attention, though, but the fact that they faced the station, that their head tilted a little when she came into view.

Slowly, the figure raised two fingers to their head, and offered her a sarcastic salute.

She shut the window. She turned around. She made her way down the stairs.

“Change your mind?” Blake called from where she had parked across the street.

“Just stretching my legs,” Yang lied, speeding after the figure as it leisurely turned the corner and disappeared from sight.

Things at the station had been so busy since that day at the school, since her suspension had been lifted. There were so many things to explain, so many reports to make, so many interviews… plus a handful of lies, and more than a little damage control. For the past few months Yang’s schedule had been full to bursting, so she hadn’t really had any time at all to think about Mercury and what he was up to, but maybe she’d made time for it once. Twice. A couple of times a week.

When she reached the corner she frowned - he was nowhere to be seen, and she slowed her walk to a stroll, searching. It wasn’t necessarily that she wanted to see him again. They’d had fun, but ultimately it was nothing but a poorly timed fling, and she was okay with that. It was just that she’d made him a promise that she intended to make good on.

She should have expected it, really – a hand shot out from the space between two stores and dragged her in until she collided with a solid chest, face-to-face with a familiar smirk.

“Miss me?”

He should have expected it, really. She pulled his arm behind his back, turning him quickly, pushing him face first into the wall. Mercury didn’t resist, not even when her hands slid up and down his body, searching for weapons.

“What, you think I’m here to kill you?”

“You did put a gun to my throat,” she said, and he scoffed. Nothing felt out of place – he was unarmed. “Why are you here?”

“I don’t know. Bored, I guess.”

“I told you what’d happen if I saw you again.”

“Why’d you follow me alone, then?” he asked, and she could hear the smirk there.

There was no need to respond. With little thought she spun him around, shoving him back so that they were face-to-face once more, so that he was pinned to the wall by his shoulders. He opened his mouth to make what was undoubtedly another self-satisfied remark, but whatever it was she never found out, because in that second she crashed their lips together and swallowed it, fingers locked tightly in the fabric of his hoodie. It took him no time at all to recover from the suddenness of it, like maybe he’d been expecting it, or hoping for it – he grabbed her hips and pulled them into his almost violently, fingers making dents in the flesh beneath her uniform-..

“Wait,” Yang said, more than a little breathless. “Wait, wait, wait.”

“You kissed me,” he replied, and she was pleased to see she wasn’t the only one catching her breath. He kept his hands where they were, and she didn’t move them.

“I can’t do this.”

“Oh?”

Law enforcement ran in her family, but that wasn’t why she’d followed in her parent’s footsteps. Neither was it solely due to her craving for excitement, her desire for uncertainty, for the unexpected. When it came down to it, Yang wanted to help people; she wanted to do what she could to stop them getting hurt, to keep them safe, and, well, to have a little fun along the way, and Mercury might satisfy one of those things, but his active work against the other two… she couldn’t overlook it.

Besides. She needed her job. She couldn’t throw it away on some fling.

He released her, and she took a step backwards. The cold hit her all at once. Her heart beat low in her stomach like she was making a mistake, but she wasn’t - the mistake happened three months ago. Now she was fixing it.

But a crumpled sheet of paper was forced into her hands.

Mercury didn’t quite meet her eyes. “Present.”

She took it. “Your handwriting is shit,” she said, squinting at the letters in the dark. All she could make out were some numbers, some scribbles – addresses, maybe? But there was nothing there to indicate who, or what, they belonged to.

“Thought you might be interested if you’re still chasing down Grimm,” he explained with a careful, casual shrug. Yang furrowed her brow. “You cops are useless.”

“What, you found them?” she asked. “And didn’t kill them?”

“Not all of them.”

She folded the paper in half, tucking it into her back pocket, eyes narrowed as she searched his face for… she didn’t know what. Dishonesty? Ulterior motives? But his expression was guarded, and he gave nothing away.

“I _could_ be persuaded to find out more…” he drawled when she’d stared at him for too long, too silently. Was he nervous? Yang felt the grin creep onto her lips.

“And how could I persuade you?”

“I’m sure you’ll think of something.”

She laughed. _Oh God._ They’d had enough underhanded business at the station to last them a lifetime, but surely this was different: how could she turn down such an offer? It had nothing to do with _him,_ Yang told herself. If a criminal could catch other criminals, _worse_ criminals…

She might have been biased. She was _definitely_ making another mistake, and yet…

She made her way out the ally. Mercury stood still for a moment, his eyes on the back of her head, and she looked over her shoulder and raised an eyebrow.

“So?”

“So?” he echoed.

“Are you coming back with me, or what?”

 --

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys... I can't write a sad ending. It's not in me. 
> 
> Thank you so, so much for getting through all of this and commenting and leaving kudos and everything! I've loved hearing your thoughts and the bits you like and even your theories haha, it's honestly been so lovely. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed it and that the ending was satisfying enough! <3


	23. Christmas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas!

Ever since she was a little girl Emerald knew she wasn’t wanted; like a bad cold she’d been passed from family to family until she’d exhausted them, and for a long time that was fine – or, it wasn’t, but she’d developed a fair few coping mechanisms to deal with the fear of rejection, and as she grew older they mainly involved avoiding the risk altogether. Then she’d met Cinder, a dangerous obsession that pierced her defences with false promises of safety and affection, and everything fell to pieces; from small time thief to nationally wanted criminal, that one little crush could easily have ruined her life, but somehow…

She twirled the phone cord around her finger as its tinny ring sounded down her ear. The eyes of the prison guards glanced over her and her fellow inmates, less interested in them than ever with Christmas creeping near, and she waited for the message to play, for the recipient to pay attention and take the damn call before it rung out.

Somehow her capture and sentencing had been the only good thing in her life she could remember. Prison sucked – the food sucked, the guards sucked, the company sucked – but even faced with what should have been so much misery she couldn’t help the little glimmer of optimism that told her the worst was over, and the best was yet to come. Somehow Ruby had rubbed off on her, and instead of moping behind bars she was only waiting, patiently, for something good when her time there came to an end.

“Yes, yes, sorry! I’m sorry,” came Ruby’s breathless greeting when she finally accepted the call. “I had the oven open, I couldn’t hear you.”

“What are you cooking?” Emerald asked, and it had only been a day since they’d last spoke and already she was smiling like a sap.

“Uh, cookies, duh. Gingerbread.”

“I’ll forgive you if you bring some next time you visit.”

Ruby laughed. “I’ll try and sneak some past the guards…”

In three more days it would be Christmas, Emerald’s second in prison. It was a depressing time of year to be locked up, but Ruby’s voice took off some of the edge and besides, it wasn’t as if her celebrations outside had ever been any nicer. No, she fared better than a lot of the other inmates because for once Emerald wasn’t alone - for once there were people who waited for her to call them, people who came to visit her, not just Ruby but her sister, Yang, and even Weiss and Blake. She was in prison and happy, and it was messed up but undeniable, and for the first time she actually believed that one day she’d be _out_ of prison and happy, too.

“Speaking of,” Ruby sang, “they’re being butts and not letting me give you your present.”

“That’s because I’m a criminal.”

“Well _yeah,_ but I’m a police officer! Surely there should be _trust,_ or something.”

Emerald snickered. “Not sure that’s how it works.”

“Well, it’s here for you when you get out, and it’s awesome. I’m the best at presents.”

“Sounds like I have some catching up to do.”

“Nah, you don’t have to buy me anything. _Your presence is enough,_ ” she teased and Emerald cringed, breathing out another laugh.

“Ugh, that’s so lame,” she said.

“You love it,” Ruby replied.

“I do,” and after some thought, “I love you.”

Vale’s prison wasn’t too far out of the way for Ruby, so she visited every fortnight or so, and it wasn’t much but she could make do because it was enough to let Emerald memorise the way Ruby looked whenever she told her she loved her, how flustered it made her and how her eyes darted side to side as she tried to remember what she wanted to say next. At least over the phone she could still hear the nervous laugh that always followed, the one that preceded her saying “I love you too.”

“How’s work?” Emerald asked.

“Oh, fine, if you count the drunk elf and two Santas we had to arrest. Christmas is dead, Em. The magic is gone.”

“And how are you spending Christmas Eve Eve?” she grinned into the receiver. Ruby could pretend all she liked, but she was still a kid at heart, and Christmas was her favourite time of year. There was a pause like Ruby was debating keeping up her humbug act, but in the end it crumbled – she gave a snicker and returned to her usual positive self in an instant.

“Well!” she began. “Me and Yang are gonna go to the Christmas market and just… eat everything they have, probably, and maybe buy some last minute presents I guess? But that’s only if it doesn’t snow ‘cause she hates being cold and wet and it’s all outdoors.”

“It’s supposed to snow?”

“Uh-huh! Overnight. And it’s going to stick! So what I’m saying is, if it snows tomorrow I’m driving to you and since we can’t _actually_ snowball fight I’m just gonna throw one over the wall and hope it hits, so make sure you’re outside, okay?”

Another inmate shot her an evil look as Emerald laughed loudly down the phone a second time – or third, or fourth, or maybe she just hadn’t stopped laughing since Ruby picked up - and it sobered her enough to pause and return the gesture, a more familiar expression for her face to take but one she found herself falling to less and less as time went by.

When the inmate looked away again she slipped back to her smile and snickered: “Right. I’ll do my best.”

“What movie are you watching this year?” Two Christmases in and Ruby already knew the routine.

“I think it’s called _A Wonderful Life_?”

“Ugh, that’s just depressing. They should put _The Grinch_ on _-_ everyone knows that’s the best one.”  

“I don’t think I’ve-“

“Em, stop, you’re wounding me! The list of movies we have to watch when you’re out is like another sentence at this point.”

“Oh no. Having to sit in front of the TV in front of you for a few years. Sounds terrible.”

“ _Now_ who’s lame?”

It was like that every time she called - nothing important, just talking and teasing and filling the gaps between visits. Ruby’s day always took up the majority of the conversation because there was only so many times Emerald could say _I watched some TV and resisted punching my cellmate,_ but that was fine – she wanted to know what Ruby was up to, wanted the assurance that things were going better for her. Besides, her silly high-pitched voice had grown on her… amongst everything else about her.

But tragically, as always, the phone call had to come to an end.

“If I don’t go now I won’t have enough credit left to call you on Christmas,” Emerald explained, and she could almost see Ruby’s pout though it was miles away. “What time’s okay?”

“Like, two, maybe? I’ll try not to be in a food coma.”

“I’d be surprised if you weren’t.”

“I’ll visit before New Year’s.”

And as always:

“I love you.”

“I love you too. See you soon.”

So she put down the phone and let the next woman in the queue take over, to call whoever she was missing over the holidays, too. 

Ever since she was a little girl Emerald thought she wasn’t wanted, but now she was older and a few mistakes deep but trying her hardest all the same, she knew that it was a lie.

\--

Being on the run wasn’t so bad. Mercury had been in many horrible places before, and the worst of them were those he couldn’t leave; for once in his life he had options, and though they were few, they were a whole lot better than what he’d grown up with. It meant he couldn’t really walk around in the day, and that he had to be careful which bars he showed his face in, but as the months went by the memories of Vale’s terrible crime spree slipped to the back of civilian minds. In a couple of years everyone would have forgotten all about him.

In the meantime, it wasn’t like money was difficult for him to come by; there was very little he couldn’t be convinced to do. Most nights he spent in hotels, hostels, stranger’s sofas, abandoned buildings, but he never strayed far from Vale, and for good reason. The best place for him to end up was the bed of his favourite bad cop, though he made do with lounging on her sofa in front of her television until she got back from work that night.

Yang paused when she opened the door and saw him on her PlayStation, but it didn’t take her long to get over her surprise. She was pretty used to it.

“You know, you’d be hard to explain if I came back with someone,” she said as she removed her thick leather jacket and hung it on the back of the door.

He glanced up from the screen and waited to respawn. “Don’t come back with anyone else, then,” he replied. The comment stung, and he quickly returned his attention to the game before he had to deal with Yang’s knowing grin. She crossed the room and pressed her lips to his temple.

“I meant friends, idiot,” she clarified. “I was getting food with Blake.”

“Uh-huh.”

Yang waited until his next death to kiss him properly, leaning down to pull his face up to hers. Her hair was a mess from her helmet, nose and cheeks still pink from the cold outside: it was December 22nd and supposed to snow overnight, but at that moment the sky remained clear and icy, just as it had been when he arrived three hours earlier. When she broke away she combed her fingers through her mane and looked to the screen, narrowing her eyes.

“Are you on my account?”

“Relax, I’m not on ranked.”

“Get me anything good?”

“I’ll show ya when I win.”

She snickered and folded her arms across her chest, watching him play for a moment without sitting down. Shifting her weight from foot to foot it was obvious she was already tired, but she’d definitely stay up now he was there.

“I’m gonna get changed. Did you eat already?” she asked.

“Uh-huh.” Instant noodles from her kitchen definitely counted.

They shouldn’t have, but things had worked out pretty well for him. He liked the life he lived now; the freedom, the challenges, the adrenaline. It was probably a bit more complicated for Yang, but he didn’t fret about it – it was her choice to be his girlfriend, and he made it worth her while anyway. She returned once he’d won his game in sweatpants and a vest and immediately made herself comfortable on top of him like he was nothing more than furniture, pushing him horizontal on the sofa before flopping over his chest and burying her face in his shoulder. There she released a groan, pained and tired, until he patted the back of her head.

“You know what’s the worst?” she asked. “Working Christmas is the worst. You know how many Santas I’ve arrested this week?”

“Three?” he guessed.

“Two. But there was a drunk mall elf too, so kinda.”

He laughed.

When they first met – properly first met – she had, by chance, overpowered him, straddled him and held him down to the floor as she searched him for weapons. He remembered thinking she was hot, acknowledging that he wanted to fuck her at least once before their deal was over, but even then he could never have predicted how they would end up; together and happy with anyone at all wasn’t something he’d ever expected or even bothered to think about, but there they were anyway, cop and criminal cuddling on the sofa to the sound of a video game start-up screen, Christmas lights flickering from every wall of the apartment.

“Where’ve you been?” She propped herself up on her elbow. “It’s been weeks.”

“Aww. Counting down the days?” he replied, grinning slyly up at her.

“You know it. Don’t avoid the question.”

He shrugged as best he could laid out on his back and scooted across the cushions until Yang dislodged herself, crossing her legs beneath her, facing him.  

“Ran into some trouble getting your present.”

“Ooh, whatcha get me?” she asked, though she definitely already knew. From his pocket he produced his gift, a scrap piece of paper decorated with scratchily written names and locations – a few more than usual, since it was Christmas and all.

“More work! You’re just the sweetest.”

“You asked for them.” Besides, it wasn’t as if it wasn’t work for him as well - half the criminals behind bars that year had to have been down to his direct intervention, but at least it meant less competition for jobs, and Yang didn’t have to know that ninety percent of them were guys he wanted gone just as bad. “The top one’s your burglar.”

“Oh, really? Nice.” She took the paper from him and scanned through it, nodding her approval. “What was the trouble?”

He shrugged again, a little gesture of indifference. “Had to take one off the list myself.”

“I didn’t hear that.”

A smirk spread across his lips - he loved when she tried to pretend she wasn’t dating a piece of shit assassin slash mercenary, but not as much as he loved teasing her about it, and with a tug of her arm he pulled her back into his lap. “Hey, no-one’s gonna miss a murderer,” he said as Yang pressed her lips to his neck. He tangled his fingers in her hair and she dragged her teeth across his throat lightly, pausing when he spoke again. “You wanna know how I did it?”

“Are you still talking?” she mumbled into his skin. “Keep it up and you’re not getting your present.”

“Hmm, let me guess. You’re gonna take your top off and say _it’s me_.”

“Okay, one, that was funny, two, you liked it, and three, I don’t repeat presents. It _is_ in my room, though.”

Honestly, he was expecting her to take her pants off instead - she couldn’t help herself when it came to a bad joke - so when he followed her to the bedroom the scruffily wrapped gift she shoved into his hands surprised him. Even when his mom was alive they’d never really celebrated Christmas - with his dad’s ‘job’ they moved around with little to no warning, so possessions weren’t really practical. He couldn’t have been older than twelve the last time he’d received a present that was actually wrapped up. Yang acted as if it wasn’t a big deal, busying herself putting the clothes she’d worn to work in her wash basket, and it wasn’t – not really. When he pulled off the paper he found a black and grey rucksack, and inside that a couple of comic books.

“Blame Ruby if they’re bad,” Yang said. “They’re her recommendations.”

“You know I’m gonna have to throw this away in a month, right?” Anything recognisable didn’t tend to last more than a few weeks with Mercury when he was trying to avoid detection, but Yang knew that and gave a shrug in response.

“It’s fine. Yours is falling apart - don’t want you to lose your one spare pair of jeans.”

It was kind of cute that she’d made an effort, but he never really knew how to say _thank you_ without it coming out sarcastic, so he didn’t. Instead, he pushed her back on the bed and climbed on top of her, pinned her arms above her head and felt her snickering breath across his cheek.

“Guess that means I’m the best at presents,” she said between kisses.

“It’s dumb. A waste of money.” He pulled her vest up over her head before she could respond – why she bothered getting changed in the first place was beyond him – and when the fabric cleared her face she grinned and kissed him again, and again, until he eventually released her to take off his belt.

At one it finally snowed, and by morning the roads were coated in it. He’d watched the flakes fall from the bed with Yang’s forehead pressed against his back beneath the scar where he was shot in his shoulder a year and a half ago, her always too-warm arm draped over his bare hip beneath the duvet until he fell to sleep, and when he woke again she was already up, redressed and checking her phone in the blinding light of the window.

“Are you doing anything today?” she asked when she noticed he was conscious again. He shook his head, and even if he did have plans, anything could be rearranged.  

“Good. I’m cancelling Christmas Eve Eve with Ruby,” and she cast an accusatory glance at the snow outside. “Keep me company?”

They shouldn’t have, but ever since he’d fled that field full of cops with a gun against an officer’s neck everything had been great, and he wasn’t going to question it.

**Author's Note:**

> Please look at this gorgeous fanart of Emerald and Ruby being adorable based on this chapter!! http://toomuchfreetyme.tumblr.com/image/152448410341 <3


End file.
